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SEYMOUR    DURST 


^  *  'Fort  nlemu   ^m/iercuim,  oj^  Je  Mtrnnatans 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
"Sver'ihing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Sf-ymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/louisakirkbridetOOtheb 


LOUISA    KIRKBRIDE    AND    HER    TWO    UAUGHrERS. 

Paji*  406, 


LOUISA  KIEKBEIDE; 


A  TjlLE  OF  1(ew  Y0I)K. 


BY 

Rev.  a.  J.   Thebaud,   S.  J, 


ILLUSTRATED, 


NEW  YORK  : 

PETER  F.  COLLIEE,  PUBLISHER. 
1879. 


,T34 

Ll 


2 


COPrBIGUT, 

1879, 
By  Pbtkr  F.  Collleb 


Now  York:  J.  J.  Llttlo  Ss  Co.,  Printers, 
10  to  ao  Astoi-  Fluco. 


PEEFAOE. 


Why  is  it  that  novels,  unless  altogether  meaningless  and 
dull,  invariably  attract  so  many  readers  ?  When  they  are 
cleverly  written,  books,  not  only  on  theology  and  religion, 
but  likewise  on  history,  science,  or  travels,  cannot  compete 
with  them  in  that  regard.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  assign  as 
the  chief  cause  of  it  the  general  lowering  of  intellect  so  re- 
markable in  our  age  ;  since  men  of  an  acute  mind  often  read 
them  with  pleasure  and  perhaps  profit.  The  main  reason 
may  be  that  there  is  something  extremely  attractive  in  the 
description  of  human  life  ;  and  this  is  the  object  of  most 
modern  novels.  Their  authors,  moreover,  often  attempt  to 
foster  social  and  political  reform,  and  occasionally  great 
questions  are  treated  under  the  alluring  form  of  a  tale.  Of- 
ten, it  is  true,  these  philosophical  considerations  are  rather 
flights  of  fancy  than  sober  and  useful  discussions.  Some- 
times, however,  social  good  may  be  effected  by  an  apologue, 
a  fable,  a  complicated  story,  a  novel,  in  fine.  Every  one 
knows  that  Charles  Dickens  acquired  a  great  deal  of  his 
fame  by  endeavoring  to  bring  on  the  correction  of  some 
social  abuses  ;  and  Mr.  Victor  Hugo,  in  the  last  twenty 
years  or  more,  has  published  a  large  number  of  political 
pamphlets,  for  the  instruction  of  the  French,  under  the 
form  of  huge,  pompous  romances. 

Many  recent  novel-writers,  however,  chiefly  in  France,  do 
not  aim  at  so  lofty  a  goal ;  their  highly  spiced  pages  culti- 
vate only  V  art  pour  V  art^  as  they  say.  They  do  not  keep 
in  view  principles  of  morality,  religious  philosophy,  or  true 
aesthetics  ;  they  strive  merely  to  allure  the  fancy  and  taste 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

of  tlieir  readers,  too  often  at  the  expense  of  what  is  most 
respectable  and  necessary  in  human  society. 

There  is  no  need  of  stating,  in  so  many  terms,  what  the 
reader  of  these  pages  is  to  ex23ect  with  regard  to  these  vari- 
ous points.  This  is  not,  certainly,  a  novel  having  for  its 
only  object  V art  2)our  Tart,  although  in  the  mind  of  the 
T\Titer,  art  ought  not  to  be  discarded  ;  far  from  it.  This  is 
an  American  work  of  fiction  describing  human  life  in  the 
city  of  Xew  York.  It  is  also  a  serious  book,  very  serious 
indeed,  and  aims  at  the  reformation  of  abuses.  Within 
these  few  years,  all  Americans,  without  almost  any  excep- 
tion— let  it  be  said  to  their  honor — have  been  most  loud  and 
emphatic  in  thek  denunciation  of  the  many  social  evils  that 
have  crept  into  the  commonwealth,  and  appear  to  threaten 
it  with  dissolution.  Some  even  have  gone  so  far  as  openly 
to  despair,  and  see  scarcely  any  possibility  of  coming  back 
to  the  former  path  of  virtue.  Many  in  Europe  gloat  over 
this  sudden  destruction  of  our  boasted  fabric,  and  do  not 
fail  to  revive  the  assertions  of  those  who  had  "foretold"  it 
many  years  ago. 

The  writer  is  far  from  believing  that  the  evil  is  irrepara- 
ble ;  and  he  hopes  that  the  people  will  show  their  usual 
good  sense  and  firmness  of  purpose  by  taking  strong  mea- 
sures of  reformation  ;  and  that  those  who,  after  God,  have 
in  their  hands  the  destiny  of  the  country,  will  not  wait  too 
long  before  applying  the  proper  remedies,  such  as  lay  within 
the  legislative  and  executive  dej^artments  of  the  govern- 
ment. His  humble  individual  effort  consists  merely  in 
pointing  out  some  of  the  excesses  which  already  have  caused 
much  mischief,  and  would  cause  more  if  not  promptly 
stopped.  "Well-meaning  journalists  and  publicists  of  every 
degree  have,  before  this,  raised  their  voice,  and  proved  that 
public  opinion  is  sound  and  firm  in  this  patriotic  purpose 
of  reform.  The  writer  confines  himself  to  one  or  two  warn- 
ings of  great  importance  in  his  eyes.  He  does  not  treat  of 
political  coiTuption,  leaving  this  subject  to  other  men  better 
able  to  handle  it.  The  open  warning  he  gives  to  the  peo- 
ple is  against  tliat  insatiable  thii-st  for  gold,  that  mania  ah 


PREFACE.  5 

auro^  far  more  fatal  than  the  well-known  mania  a  potu. 
Should  he  succeed  in  inducing  people  to  take  heed  to  it, 
and  frown  down  every  attempt  at  a  further  spreading  of 
this  baneful  evil,  he  T^ill  consider  his  labors  well  rewarded. 
There  is  another  abuse  of  which  he  speaks  more  indirectly, 
which,  however,  cannot  but  be  adverted  to  by  the  reader, 
as  its  evil  consequences  run  through  the  whole  story.  It  is 
the  want  of  proper  strictness  in  domestic  education,  which 
leaves  very  often  mere  boys,  and  nearly  always  young  men, 
perfectly  independent  in  their  conduct  and  associations. 
The  sad  story  of  young  Frederick  Kirkbride  is  not  often 
enacted  in  this  country  with  the  same  momentous  results ; 
still,  the  domestic  life  of  many  excellent  people  is  too  often 
imbittered  by  the  misconduct  of  their  children,  chiefly  of 
their  boys. 

Some  less  thoughtful  readers  may  fancy  that  this  volume 
is,  in  the  main,  a  common  picture  drawn  for  the  glorification 
of  Irish  Catholics  in  North  America.  To  think  so  would  be 
a  ridiculous  mistake.  In  describing  New  York  life,  the 
Irish  Catholics  cannot  be  set  aside,  as  they  are  quite  an 
integrant  part  of  it.  But  they  are  not  the  chief  attraction 
of  the  story.  The  Anglo-American  lady,  whose  name  forms 
the  book's  title,  is  far  ahead  of  the  0' Byrnes  in  this  regard  ; 
her  husband,  Ralph  S.  Kirkbride  is  an  American  merchant 
whom  no  Irish  or  other  merchant  can  surpass  in  honor, 
integrity,  or  skill.  Many  of  the  other  noble  characters  have 
not  a  drop  of  Irish  blood  in  their  veins  ;  whilst,  on  the  con- 
trary, there  is  a  certain  Mr.  O'Tee,  an  Irish  broker,  who  is 
not  altogether  a  model  of  all  Christian  virtues.  The  fact  is 
that  the  writer  never  had  any  idea  of  exalting  one  nation 
above  the  others.  His  great  object  was  to  describe  Ameri- 
can life  in  New  York,  and  to  warn  the  people  of  this  coun- 
try against  some  social  dangers  which  all  must  admit  are 
only  too  real,  and  might  be  the  cause  of  untold  calamities. 
The  commercial  and  financial  depression  of  the  country  for 
several  years  past,  is,  perhaps,  more  the  effect  of  the  unnatu- 
ral speculations  described  in  this  book  than  of  all  the  other 
causes  which  are  generally  given  out  as  an  explanation. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface, 3 

CHAPTER  I. 
A  Hard  Winter, 9 

CHAPTER  II. 
A  Christian  Woman, 33 

CHAPTER  III. 
A  Beginning  of  Hostilities, 47 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Plot  Thickens, 70 

CHAPTER  V. 
Father  and  Son  in  the  Mansion, 89 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Mother  and  Son  in  their  Appropriate  Characters,      .        •        .        .        .     101 

CHAPTER  VII. 
The  Family  in  the  Cottage, 108 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
A  Religious  Controversy  of  a  New  Kind, 119 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  First  Law  Chapter  of  the  Book, 130 

CHAPTER  X. 
A  Young  Man  always  needs  a  Guide, 137 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Ups  and  Downs  in  Fred's  Path, 152 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  Training  up  of  a  Detective  not  always  Pleasant,        •        .        •        *    166 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Both  Frederick  and  Con  intent  on  the  Prosecution  of  Vice,  .        .         177 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
A  Short  Episode  of  Importance  for  the  Sequel  of  the  Story,     .        .        .    185 

CHAPTER  XV. 
A  Catastrophe, 191 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
A  New  Deal  of  Cards  all  Around, 206 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Mr.  Cornelius  O'Byme's  First  Operations  as  a  Detective,      .        .        .         239 

7 


8  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 

CHAPTER  XVIII.  P^GE 

Mr.  Frederick  visits  his  Mother,  and  begins  to  operate  in  Wall  Street  on 

a  Large  Scale, 250 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Doings  and  Sayings  of  Two  Stock  Gamblers. — Preparations  for  a  Great 

Day. — Bearing  of  Law  and  Morality  on  it, 270 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Just  the  Day  Before, 291 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
Black  Friday  and  the  Crash, 303 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
A  Sad  End  of  Great  Hopes, 337 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
Sorrow  and  Consolation, 354 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Domestic  Details  of  a  more  Soothing  Nature, 365 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
A  New  Turn  in  Domestic  Affairs  and  a  Stir  at  Police  Headquarters,    .         376 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
A  New  Fiendish  Assault, 391 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
An  Irish  Dinner, 409 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
The  Last  Victory  over  a  Persistent  E^dl, 422 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
A  First  Gleam  of  Sunshine, 435 

CHAPTER  XXX. 
A  Short  Chapter  on  Religion,  Domestic  Feelings,  and  Law,     .        .        .    452 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Photographs  of  Ernst  Bauer  and  Dr.  McElheran.— Two  Figures  very 

Unlike, 464 

CHAPTER  XXXn. 
Continuation  of  the  Same  Subject, 482 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 
Interview  between  Mrs.  Louisa  Kirkbride  and  her  "  Two  Daughters," 

followed  by  a  Lively  Dinner, 496 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
Mrs.  L.  Kirkbride  fully  discloses  her  Plans, 509 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 
The  End.— All  is  Well  that  Ends  WeU, 518 


-Louisa  Kirkbride. 


CHAPTEH  I. 

A  HAED  WIKTEE. 


Patpjck  O'Btexe  was  bom  on  a  very  small  farm  in 
the  neigliborliood  of  Enniscorthy,  County  Wexford,  Ire- 
land. His  ancestors  before  Mm  had  tilled  the  same  soil, 
and  lived  and  died  on  the  same  spot.  The  clan,  it  is  true, 
did  not  originally  belong  to  Wexford,  but  had  from  time 
immemorial  occupied  the  adjoining  county,  Wicklow.  At 
what  precise  epoch  an  offshoot  of  the  O' Byrnes  struck  its 
roots  so  far  south,  on  the  banks  of  the  Slaney,  it  would  be 
idle  now  to  inquire.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  for  many 
ages  they  had  been  known  in  that  neighborhood.  It  is 
asserted,  moreover,  on  good  authority,  that  Patrick's  grand- 
father belonged  to  that  noble  band  of  unfortunate  men  who, 
driven  to  desperation  in  1798  by  a  perfidious  government, 
were  forced  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the  United  Irishmen,  and 
fought  with  such  a  fearless  energy  at  New  Ross  and  Vine- 
gar HiU.  The  old  man  perished  with  thousands  of  others 
on  this  last  field  ;  but  all  the  details  of  the  battle  were 
faithfuUy  treasured  up  in  the  memory  of  his  son,  who  in 
his  turn  transmitted  them  to  our  friend  Patrick.  It  was 
the  great  event  in  the  history  of  this  humble  family  ;  Pat- 
rick could  have  wTitten  a  full  narrative  of  the  whole  cam- 
paign. 


10  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

Though  this  deed  of  daring  had  given  the  poor  0' Byrnes 
a  sort  of  celebrity  among  the  surrounding  population,  it 
had  not  improved  their  worldly  prospects.  They  had  suf- 
fered in  consequence  of  it  in  more  than  one  way.  Their 
farm  had  been  still  more  reduced  by  confiscation.  Yet 
they  considered  themselves  lucky  not  to  have  lost  the 
whole  of  it.  From  that  time,  however,  they  grew  poorer 
and  poorer,  until,  chiefly  in  consequence  of  the  great  famine 
of  1846,  they  foresaw  that  they,  like  so  many  others  in  Ire- 
land, would  have  to  leave  their  native  country.  They 
hoped,  however,  against  hope,  and  contrived,  by  extraordi- 
nary shifts,  to  put  off  their  departure  for  a  few  years.  At 
last,  unable  to  pay  their  heavy  arrears,  they  were  cruelly 
evicted  by  a  soulless  agent,  and  thrown  on  the  wide  world 
without  means,  deprived  even  of  any  prospect  of  earning 
their  livelihood  in  their  dear  country. 

At  the  time  when  they  were  thus  mercilessly  obliged  to 
leave  the  only  spot  they  knew  and  loved  on  earth — a  spot 
occupied  by  their  sept  for  so  many  ages,  endeared  to  them 
by  the  memory  of  deep  sorrows  entwined  with  days  of  rural 
bliss — the  family  consisted  of  the  father,  Patrick,  a  man  of 
sixty,  old  and  worn  out  by  labor  and  privations  of  all  sorts ; 
the  mother,  Honorah,  a  few  years  younger  than  her  hus- 
band, but  whose  delicate  health  was  fatally  injured  by  ex- 
posure consequent  on  a  winter  eviction ;  Julia,  a  girl  of 
nineteen,  her  mother's  consolation  ;  and  Con,  a  young  man 
of  eighteen,  the  last  and  the  only  survivor  of  five  boys  who 
had  called  Honorah  theu*  mother. 

The  reader  will  not  expect  us  to  enter  into  the  homely 
domestic  details  which  preceded  and  accomj^anied  their 
departure  from  Ireland.  It  is  their  future  x>osition  in 
America  which  alone  can  interest  us  ;  and,  to  sum  uj)  in  a 
few  words  what  it  is  proper  for  us  to  know  of  their  last 
days  in  the  old  country,  we  have  merely  to  say  that  Provi- 
dence came  to  their  help  in  the  moment  of  their  greatest 
distress.  An  honest  merchant  of  Waterford,  who  had  for- 
merly dealt  with  the  family,  and  received  the  produce  of 
their  farm  for  several  years,  but  had  subsequently  fallen 


A  EABD    WINTER.  H 

into  bankruptcy,  hearing  of  their  position  when  his  own 
affairs  were  gradually  assuming  a  more  favorable  aspect, 
sent  them  at  once  thirty-five  pounds  sterling,  a  large  part 
of  his  own  indebtedness  to  them.  Thus  were  they  enabled 
to  take  shipiDing  in  Waterford  for  Liverpool,  and  thence 
to  cross  the  Atlantic  and  land  in  New  York.  Here  they 
finally  arrived  with  just  money  enough  to  live  a  few  weeks, 
and  look  about  them  for  a  position. 

The  time  of  their  arrival  in  America  appeared  propitious 
for  their  future  prospects.  After  more  than  four  years  of 
bloodshed,  the  horrible  civil  war  of  1861  had  just  ended 
in  the  total  subjection  of  the  South.  Though  the  whole 
country  still  suffered  deeply  from  such  a  protracted  strife, 
yet  strangers  at  least  were  welcome  to  replace  those  whom 
the  war  had  cut  off,  and  to  enable  the  young  and  vigorous 
country  to  spring  up  into  life  again,  and  to  resume  the  in- 
terrupted course  of  her  gigantic  enterprises.  There  was  no 
fear  that  the  insane  war-cry  of  the  former  Nativists  or 
Know-Nothings  should  again  assail  and  pursue  the  lately 
landed  Irishman ;  and  for  a  long  time,  it  was  to  be  hoped, 
his  activity  and  desire  of  being  useful  would  be  encouraged 
by  all  classes  of  society,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  a 
handful  of  irreconcilable  fanatics. 

It  was  fortunate,  therefore,  for  the  0' Byrnes,  that  they 
reached  New  York  early  in  the  spring  of  186-.  They  did 
not  meet  with  any  difficulty  in  finding  work  for  a  living. 
There  was,  indeed,  no  great  demonstration  of  welcome  at 
their  arrival ;  but  at  least  no  one  ill-treated  or  abused  them  ; 
they  were  not  brutally  refused  the  permission  to  earn  their 
bread ;  they  were  not  told  insolently  to  go  back  to  their 
desolate  homes,  and  leave  America  to  Americans.  This  was 
all  they  asked  ;  and  thus  their  expectations,  not  being  too 
sanguine,  were  easily  satisfied. 

Soon  they  even  found  friends  from  the  old  country  to 
initiate  them  into  the  ways  of  their  new  abode.  Especially 
they  found  the  road  leading  to  the  temple  of  their  God,  and 
were  deeply  consoled  by  the  facility  with  which  they  could 
fulfill  their  duties  of  religion.     Thus  their  simple  hearts, 


12  LOUISA  KIRKBBIDE, 

broken  at  first  by  the  tearing  away  from  all  that  was  dear 
to  them,  began  gradually  to  revive  and  expand  under  the 
sweet  emotions  of  religion  and  friendship. 

This  friendship  was  simply  that  of  an  oldish  man  by  the 
name  of  John  Doyle.  He  was  about  sixty- five  years  of  age, 
a  widower,  whose  children,  already  grown  up,  were  settled 
around  him.  He  was  independent  of  them,  being  a  porter 
in  a  wholesale  house  on  Beaver  Street.  Doyle  had  emi- 
grated long  ago  from  the  South  of  Ireland,  and  had  now 
been  many  years  with  his  present  employers,  whose  confi- 
dence he  enjoyed.  Patrick  0' Byrne  met  him  accidentally, 
and  through  his  good  offices  obtained  rooms  in  an  old  but 
still  decent  house  in  James  Street,  where  his  new  friend 
boarded. 

Thus  heaven  appeared  to  smile  on  the  poor  family  ;  and 
to  complete  their  happiness  the  father  and  the  son  had,  also 
through  Doyle,  found  an  employment  likely  to  be  steady 
with  one  of  the  largest  contractors  for  the  city  works.  Mrs. 
Honorah  0' Byrne,  though  delicate  and  suffering,  during 
summer,  from  a  hacking  cough,  could  yet  take  care  of 
the  plain  rooms  in  which  they  lodged,  and,  with  the  help 
of  Julia,  attend  to  all  the  wants  of  her  husband  and  son. 
The  church  was  very  near,  and  is  well  known  to  our  read- 
ers ;  there  they  all  met  on  Sundays  to  thank  God.  Julia, 
always  a  good  and  pious  girl,  was  to  be  found  there  for 
about  half  an  hour  every  morning. 

The  reader  may  say  that  this  is  a  strange  novel,  unlike 
most  of  those  that  are  published  ;  as  it  contains  only  things 
which  everybody  knows  happen  every  day  around  us. 
But  he  must  believe  that  this  is  a  real  history  ;  and  conse- 
quently must  be  like  everything  we  see  every  day. 

The  end  of  the  summer  passed  happily  in  such  fortunate 
circumstances,  and  the  autumn,  with  its  milder  weather, 
acted  favorably  on  the  health  of  the  good  mother,  who 
seemed  to  revive,  and  for  whom  there  appeared  to  be  now  a 
possibility  of  final  recovery. 

At  the  beginning  of  November,  186-,  great  disclosures 
of  unheard-of  rascalities  startled  the  citizens  of  New  York. 


A  HARD   WINTEB.  13 

The  public  works  of  the  city  had  been,  for  many  contractors, 
the  occasion  of  stealing  on  a  large  scale.  Worse  doings  of 
the  kind  have  since  rendered  the  people  more  callous  to 
robberies,  which  they  appear  now  to  consider  as  unavoida- 
ble. But  at  the  time  the  sensation  was  tremendous ;  the 
papers  came  out  in  flaming  indignation.  ''  The  golden  age 
of  innocence  and  fair  dealing  must  inevitably  come  back," 
they  said  ;  "we  cannot  be  imposed  upon  any  longer  ;  and 
the  first  thing  the  authorities  have  to  do  is  to  discharge 
instantly  all  those  thievish  contractors."  They  were  dis- 
charged; all  public  improvements  were  stopped  at  once, 
and  among  the  immense  number  of  sufferers  thereby,  the 
O' Byrnes  claim  our  exclusive  attention. 

Patrick  and  Con  were  now  idle.  Mr.  Doyle,  their  friend, 
could  not  see  anything  for  them  to  do  in  the  large  ware- 
houses of  the  neighborhood,  which  had  all  their  full  com- 
plement of  men.  He  first  advised  tliem  to  go  round  the 
city  and  apply  at  every  store.  But,  everywhere,  the  same 
answer  greeted  them.  There  were  so  many  applicants  for 
positions  of  that  kind,  that  the  merchants,  even  if  they 
could  have  employed  more  men,  replied  to  all,  indiscrimi- 
nately, "  We  don't  want  anybody." 

Meanwhile,  the  family  had  been  merely  supported  by 
their  labor  during  the  summer  and  autumn  ;  there  was  the 
doctor's  bill  to  pay  for  Mrs.  O' Byrne,  besides  the  rent  of 
two  rooms  and  provisions  and  clothing.  On  the  very  day 
of  the  suspension  of  work,  after  receiving  their  money,  and 
paying  out  what  they  owed,  a  few  dollars  were  all  that 
remained  to  them  in  the  world. 

In  a  few  days  winter  set  in,  much  earlier  than  usual. 
The  blast  already  raged  with  fury  in  the  streets  where 
Patrick  0' Byrne  and  his  son  rambled  the  whole  day  long ; 
and  they  invariably  returned  home  every  evening  with  the 
same  result  of  their  wanderings — no  work. 

Landlords  in  New  York  are  not  much  given  to  softness 
of  heart ;  they  say  they  have  to  protect  themselves.  The 
family  saw  at  once  the  impending  ruin ;  they  must  leave 
their  rooms,  without  any  prospect  of  finding  any  others. 


14  LOUISA  EIBEBPdDE. 

To  make  matters  worse,  tlie  poor  mother's  hacking  cough 
had  returned ;  she  had  to  save  coal,  and  the  room  was  no 
longer  warm  enough  for  her  weak  lungs.  She  had  to  re- 
main with  Julia  during  the  day,  when  her  husband  and  son 
went  tramping  through  the  streets  in  search  of  work.  It 
was  December  in  good  earnest ;  and  those  only  who  have 
suffered  from  it  can  say  what  winter  is  in  the  wealthiest 
cities  of  the  North. 

The  sky  was  overcast  and  of  a  grayish  color  ;  the  air 
biting  ;  the  wind  savage,  and  evidently  determined  to  sweep 
away  all  obstacles  and  reign  supreme.  A  snow,  as  thin  as 
dust,  was  driven  fiercely  in  the  faces  of  the  few  pedestrians 
who  had  to  leave  home ;  the  ground,  akeady  frozen  hard, 
was  everywhere  covered  vath.  a  thick  white  pall,  on  which  the 
feet  scarcely  made  an  impression,  so  hard  pressed  was  it  by 
the  wind  when  it  reached  the  ground.  The  streets  were 
almost  deserted ;  and  the  few  horses  in  the  desolate  thor- 
oughfares shook  their  heads  mournfully,  and  snorted  at 
times,  as  if  to  cheer  themselves  up  and  keep  up  their  be- 
numbed spirits.  Wherever  you  crossed  a  street,  the  blast 
struck  you  like  a  sledge-hammer ;  its  icy  breath  burned 
your  skin,  as  travelers  report  of  the  simoom  of  Africa. 
Then,  you  had  to  keep  your  cloak  or  overcoat  close  around 
your  body,  to  prevent  the  wind  from  stripping  you,  or  at 
least  to  keep  all  the  articles  of  your  dress  from  flapping 
wildly  in  your  wake,  and  dragging  you  behind  when  you 
wanted  to  make  a  step  forward.  Then,  instead  of  a  smooth 
it)ad,  you  found  hillocks  of  hard  white  snow  heaped  up  on 
your  path  by  the  fury  of  the  tempest,  as  if  the  city  sur- 
veyor had  never  intended  to  make  level  sidewalks  or  estab- 
lish regular  grades  for  the  convenience  of  bustling  citizens. 
What  sad  confusion  in  the  best-regulated  cities  !  All  order, 
symmetry,  neatness,  has  disappeared,  and  the  wild  liuiTy- 
ing  to  and  fro  of  cold  feet  is  in  keeping  with  the  universal 
disorder  of  the  elements. 

Now  picture  to  yourself,  in  the  midst  of  the  howling 
storm,  not  the  rich  man,  well  protected  and  warmly  clad, 
supposing  he  knows  how  to  steady  his  feet,  and  keep  his 


A  EABD    WINTER.  I5 

broadcloth  and  furs  in  position,  but  a  couple  of  poor  forlorn 
outcasts,  covered  with  wornout,  tattered  jean,  coming  from 
a  cold  and  desolate  home,  and  walking  at  random  through 
unknown  streets,  looking  for  employment,  and  seeming  to 
long  for  the  charity  of  the  benevolent,  when  they  meet  only 
with  cold  and  unsympathetic  faces.  They  have  break- 
fasted on  a  hard  crust  and  a  glass  of  water  ;  they  are  sure 
of  the  same  fare  when  they  return  home  late  in  the  even- 
ing. Their  limbs  are  chilled  and  almost  numb  ;  yet  they 
tramp  on,  scarcely  hoping  for  good  luck  after  so  many 
failures.  Their  humble  and  prayerful  request  is  every- 
where met  with  the  same  negative  answer. 

Oh !  did  they  not  believe  in  God,  what  fearful,  despairing 
thoughts  would  rankle  in  their  bosoms  !  Would  they  not 
think  that  the  whole  world  was  purposely  arrayed  against 
them,  though  they  had  done  nothing  to  deserve  hate? 
Would  they  not  consider  Heaven,  Xature,  Society,  as  a 
triple  alliance  of  bitter  foes  against  whom  they  would  be 
justified  in  waging  war  ?  What  are,  in  such  a  state  of  mind 
as  this,  robbery,  murder,  suicide,  but  a  proper  retaliation, 
or  an  always  open  escape  from  the  decree  of  a  most  unjust 
and  cruel  fate  ? 

But  not  even  a  shadow  of  these  fierce  temptations  could 
overcast  the  serene  temper  of  these  two  heroic  souls.  They 
would  die  rather  than  blaspheme  their  God  or  despair  of 
Heaven.  They  had  left  in  their  desolate  home  two  price- 
less jewels  of  virtue  and  purity.  They  knew  that  Honorah 
and  her  daughter  prayed  for  them  ;  and  this  thought  alone 
could  steady  their  faltering  steps,  and  enable  them  to  hope 
against  hope. 

H  it  were  not  for  such  virtue  as  this,  how  could  God  in 
heaven  look  down  upon  the  earth  with  complacency  ?  Would 
not  His  justice  destroy  the  wicked,  in  case  it  was  not  ar- 
rested by  the  spectacle  of  such  an  evident  heroism  of  faith 
and  hope  ?  And  is  it  not  true  that  the  Church  of  Christ  has 
at  all  times  contained  thousands  upon  thousands  of  people 
whose  purity  of  heart  and  greatness  of  soul  could  transport 
in  raptures  the  angels  themselves  ? 


16  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

Nevertheless,  when  at  night  the  father  and  son  met  the 
mother  and  her  daughter  without  any  good  news  to  pre- 
vent them  from  despairing,  the  four  together  appeared  to 
be  overwhelmed  with  unutterable  misery.  When  they  left 
Ireland,  they  thought  they  could  never  meet  with  a  worse 
fate  ;  and  the  New  World,  so  bright  soon  after  their  land- 
ing, was  now  overcast  with  clouds  more  threatening  still, 
and  the  tempest  was  fiercer,  because  there  could  be  no  hope 
of  any  other  place  of  refuge. 

Yet  they  soon  fell  on  their  knees,  and  joined  in  their 
usual  prayers,  and,  as  the  Church  had  taught  them  never 
to  change  the  formula,  there  were  always  the  usual  acts  of 
thanksgiving,  which  came  indeed  from  the  heart,  however 
incredulous  the  world  may  be  when  told  of  it  in  such  ex- 
treme circumstances. 

Early  every  morning  they  were  somewhat  cheered  by 
well-known  steps.  Good  Mr.  Doyle  showed  himself  a 
friend,  indeed  ;  but  what  could  he  do  ?  His  children,  all 
married,  with  their  little  families  growing  around  them, 
had  to  be  very  economical,  owing  to  the  public  distress 
which  was  already  felt  through  the  whole  city,  and  which 
had  considerably  lowered  their  wages.  He  could  not,  indi- 
vidually, on  his  own  slender  means,  take  charge  of  four 
persons.  It  was  indeed  a  distressing  situation  !  Every 
night  O' Byrne  and  his  son  came  home,  almost  famished,  to 
find  scarcely  a  dry  crust  of  bread,  saved  from  the  only  daily 
meal  of  the  two  devoted  women  ! 

Their  doom  was  apparently  sealed :  there  was  no  more 
coal  or  bread  in  the  house.  The  fury  of  the  blast  had  to 
be  met  by  stuffing  the  windows  and  the  chinks  of  the  door 
with  all  the  rags  which  now  composed  the  wardrobe  of  the 
family.  They  had  received  notice  from  the  landlord,  the 
day  before,  that,  in  a  week's  time,  new  lodgers  would  come 
to  take  their  place.  "Where  could  they  go?  Mr.  Doyle 
had  collected  some  few  dollars  among  those  of  his  coun- 
trymen whom  he  knew,  and,  adding  his  own  mite,  had 
placed  the  whole  in  the  hands  of  his  dejected  friends. 
The  only  and  last  resort  he  could  suggest  was  the  work- 


A  HARD   WINTEB.  17 

house.   Terrible  prospect,  indeed,  for  honest  and  honorable 
people  ! 

Toward  the  end  of  this  terrible  week,  which  was  to  be 
their  last  in  James  Street,  Mr.  Doyle,  who  had,  as  usual, 
made  an  appearance  in  the  morning,  came  again  late  in  the 
afternoon.  This  time  he  seemed  to  smile  as  he  had  not 
done  for  a  long  time,  and  he  immediately  said  that  the  day 
following  might,  perhaps,  bring  an  unexpected  change. 

''  God  be  praised !  "  exclaimed  poor  0' Byrne. 

''Of  course,"  replied  his  friend ;  ''but  the  thing  is  not 
done  yet.  It  may  fail  completely  ;  still,  there  is  a  chance. 
Before,  however,  I  explain  myself,  here  is  at  least  a  two- 
dollar  bill ;  there  is  no  mistake  about  it.  One  of  those 
friends  to  whom  I  applied  for  your  collection  lately,  had 
nothing  to  give  ;  but  he  promised.  This  is  the  fulfillment 
of  his  word — more  than  any  other  gave  at  the  time.  It  will 
keep  you  afloat  a  couple  of  days.  In  addition  to  this,  I 
want  to  take  my  supper  with  you,  and  probably  your  lar- 
der is  not  very  well  stocked.  Here  is  another  dollar  to  pay 
for  my  share  of  the  supper.  Julia,  my  dear,  go  to  the 
nearest  store ;  buy  for  us  whatever  does  not  require  much 
cooking  ;  for  I  am  sure  the  appetites  of  all  of  us  are  pretty 
sharp,  and  can  scarcely  bear  a  long  delay.  Mine,  I  must 
say,  is  almost  voracious.  Go  quick,  and  come  back  quicker. 
Now  for  the  other  business. 

"The  head  of  our  firm,  Mr.  R.  Kirkbride,  lives  on  Madison 
Avenue,  near  the  beginning  of  the  Central  Park.  He  occu- 
pies a  very  fine  house  at  the  corner  of  the  block.  The 
whole  block  belongs  to  him  ;  but  there  is  no  other  house  on 
it  except  his  own.  Down  in  the  lot,  however,  at  the  other 
extremity,  near  Fifth  Avenue,  an  old  rickety  shanty  had 
been  put  up,  long  ago,  before  Mr.  Kirkbride  bought  the 
property,  and  he  allowed  the  Irish  family  who  occupied  it 
to  remain.  Now  they  are  gone ;  they  left  it  yesterday. 
Mr.  Kirkbride  certainly  intends  to  pull  down  the  shanty, 
and  there  is  the  rub.  But  I  know  him  well ;  if  you,  Mr. 
O' Byrne,  go  right  away  to  him,  to-morrow  morning,  and 
can  convince  him  that  he  will  save  your  family  from  de- 
2 


18  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

stniction,  by  allowing  you  to  occupy  tlie  shanty,  at  least 
during  winter,  lie  will  find  it  liard  to  refuse,  and  he  may 
very  well  agree  to  it,  in  spite  of  his  precious  son." 

''There  Avill  be  no  difiiculty,"  interposed  Mr.  O' Byrne, 
''if  you  come  with  me,  Mr.  Doyle." 

"That  is  precisely,"  replied  the  good  man,  "what  it  is 
better  not  to  do.  I  know  what  I  say,  and  we  must  not 
think  of  it." 

"Then  it  will  be  hard,"  said  his  friend.  "  What  coun- 
tryman is  Mr.  Kirkbride  ? " 

"From  the  North  of  Ireland,"  said  Mr.  Doyle;  "his 
father  brought  him  here  when  he  was  already  a  young 
man." 

"Then  we  are  lost,"  blurted  out  poor  O' Byrne. 

"Not  at  all,"  replied  his  friend.  "I have  remarked  that 
he  feels  kindly  for  County  Wexford  ;  I  never  could  ascer- 
tain the  reason,  but  it's  a  fact.  Tell  him  it's  your  county, 
and  he'll  listen  to  you." 

"Let  us  pray,"  said  Mr.  0' Byrne,  "  that  it  may  turn  out 
well ;  but  I  have  very  little  hope." 

"Don't  say  so,  and  go  with  confidence,"  replied  Doyle  ; 
"yet  I  must  tell  you  that  in  his  house  you  will  find  only 
himself  and  his  wife  friendly  to  you  ;  all  the  others,  boy  and 
servants,  are  devils  with  respect  to  Ireland.  But  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride is  a  real  angel,  although  not  a  Catholic  ;  and  if  you 
once  get  into  the  shanty,  Mrs.  O' Byrne  will  be  treated  by 
her  as  by  a  Sister  of  Charity." 

"What  must  I  do  to  find  him,  and  why  not  go  to  his 
office  when  he  comes  down  to-morrow  ?"  asked  Patrick. 

"If  you  came  to  his  office,"  said  Doyle,  "he  would  see 
immediately  that  I  have  managed  the  whole  affair ;  that 
might,  and  would  most  probably,  spoil  it.  But  be  to-mor- 
row at  nine  o'clock  on  Madison  Avenue — here  on  this  paper 
is  the  number  of  the  house — wait  there  until  he  comes  out 
to  get  into  his  carriage  ;  for  owing  to  the  malice  of  the  ser- 
vants, you  must  not  ring  the  bell  and  ask  to  see  him.  He 
will  certainly  come  out  before  half -past  nine." 

Just  at  this  moment  Julia  was  coming  back  from  the 


A  HARD   WINTER.  19 

store  with  bread,  ham,  and  eggs  ;  a  few  minutes  after,  tlie 
friends  were  around  the  table,  the  poor  O' Byrne  family 
making  the  first  real  meal  in  four  or  five  days. 

After  giving  more  precise  instructions  to  his  friend,  Mr. 
Doyle  left  them  alone  and  withdrew  for  the  night. 

At  the  time  appointed  next  morning,  0' Byrne  was  at  his 
post.  Poor  Julia  had  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  night 
repairing  and  cleaning  the  best  clothes  he  had,  and  his  ap- 
pearance was  that  of  a  respectable  workman.  He  had  to 
wait  nearly  twenty-five  minutes,  walking  up  and  down  the 
avenue,  never  losing  sight  of  the  blessed  door  out  of  which 
was  to  come  his  salvation  or  his  doom. 

The  carriage  had  been  waiting  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  when 
Mr.  Kirkbride  came  out :  a  man  of  fifty  or  fifty-five,  well  set, 
already  stout,  with  a  full,  clear-cut,  determined  face,  bluish- 
gray  eyes,  beaming  vvdth  benevolence  when  they  smiled,  but 
otherwise  keen  and  piercing.  There  is  no  need  of  mention- 
ing his  attire,  which  was  that  of  a  merchant  prince  dressing 
in  good  taste.  O' Byrne  stepped  up  to  him,  and  pointing 
with  his  hand  to  the  shanty,  just  visible  from  the  carriage, 
''I  understand,"  said  he,  "that  this  cottage  is  now  unoccu- 
pied ;  it  would  be,  sir,  an  act  of  great  charity  on  your  j)art, 
if  you  let  me  have  it  for  the  winter  only." 

''This  shanty^  my  friend,"  said  the  merchant  prince, 
"shall  not  be  there  to-morrow  ;  men  are  coming  this  after- 
noon to  jjull  it  down." 

Poor  0' Byrne's  face  was  as  pale  as  a  sheet. 

"Then,  sir,"  he  exclaimed,  "my  only  prospect  for  myself 
and  family  is  the  workhouse,  and  honest  people,  as  I  hope 
we  are,  never  come  out  of  it  but  to  go  to  the  Potter's  Field." 

Mr.  Kirkbride  looked  up  keenly  in  0' Byrne's  face. 

"You  are  an  Irishman,  I  suppose,"  said  he  ;  "from  what 
part  of  Ireland  V 

"From  County  Wexford,  sir." 

"From  what  place  there \ " 

"From  the  neighborhood  of  Enniscorthy,  sir." 

"Do  you  know  Vinegar  Hill ? "  said  Mr.  Kirkbride. 

This  simple  word  gave  a  fearful  shock  to  O' Byrne.     To 


20  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE, 

the  load  of  actual  miseries,  over  which  he  had  been  brooding 
for  more  than  a  month,  was  added  the  weight  of  painful 
memories,  kept  fresh  in  his  mind  by  what  he  had  learned 
from  his  father.  Patrick  only  half  succeeded  in  stilling  a 
deep  sob,  and  tears  filled  his  eyes,  as  he  said  : 

^'My  grandfather  was  killed  there,  sir,  and  his  son,  my 
OT\Ti  father,  was  with  him,  and  told  me  all." 

''Calm  yourself,  my  dear  friend,"  said  Mr.  Kirkbride, 
kindly,  ' '  and  come  to  my  office  at  two  o'  clock  this  after- 
noon." 

At  the  same  time  he  told  John,  his  footman,  to  go  for  one 
of  his  business  cards,  and  to  call  Mrs.  Kirkbride  to  him  for 
a  moment.  She  came,  but  remained  inside,  and  her  husband 
said  aloud  : 

''Louisa,  my  dear,  when  the  men  come  this  afternoon,  to 
pull  down  the  shanty,  send  them  away ;  they  must  wait  at 
least  until  to-morrow." 

"And  a  little  longer,  I  hope,"  said  a  sweet,  motherly  voice, 
as  Mrs.  Kirkbride  slowly  closed  the  door.  The  card  was 
handed  pertly  by  the  servant  to  0' Byrne,  and  the  carriage 
drove  off  toward  the  city. 

Writing  down,  as  we  do,  a  simple  and  true  story,  and  not 
a  sensational  novel,  we  must  clear  at  once  the  apparent  mys- 
tery contained  in  the  last  conversation.  Why  was  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride so  interested  in  Vinegar  Hill  and  the  County  of  Wex- 
ford ?  The  story  Avill  be  soon  told.  His  grandfatlier,  living 
in  County  Down,  was,  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  a  very 
active  member  of  the  United  Irishmen.  He  had  been  before 
deeply  interested  in  the  "volunteer  movement,"  but  be- 
longed to  that  branch  of  it  which  acknowledged  such  men  as 
Grattan  and  the  Bishop  of  Derry  as  their  leaders.  They 
wanted  their  rights  restored  to  the  Catholics,  and  could  not 
think  of  a  union  of  Irishmen  which  should  leave  out  the  Mi- 
lesian Celts.  They  were  the  first  Irish  Protestants  who  showed 
true  liberality  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  Orange  Lodges, 
which  were  started  soon  after,  there  is  no  doubt  that  a  com- 
plete unanimity  of  feeling  would  have  finally  prevailed  in 
poor  Ireland.   Hence,  when  the  rebellion  of '  98  began,  a  great 


A  HABD    WINTER,  21 

number  of  Irish  Protestants  of  the  JN'orth  looked  to  the  South 
for  help,  and  expected  to  receive  it  from  the  Catholics.  They 
were  not  deceived ;  for,  although  the  movement  began  there 
late,  on  account  of  the  complete  prostration  of  the  country, 
although  the  same  movement  was  very  little  prepared  in  the 
South  by  underhanded  conspiracies  and  plots,  yet  wdien  the 
people  of  that  part  of  the  country  were  finally  driven  to  des- 
peration by  the  British  Government,  the  rising  was  almost 
universal,  and  truly  heroic.  All  the  details  of  the  short 
struggle  are  well  known,  and  would  be  out  of  place  in  these 
pages  ;  but  what  concerns  us  deeply  is  that  the  grandfather 
of  Mr.  Kirkbride,  himself  one  of  the  United  Irishmen,  had 
gone  to  County  Wexford  at  the  time  of  the  insurrection,  and 
witnessed  the  heroism  of  the  people.  When  he  returned  to 
the  North,  after  the  failure  of  the  attempt,  he  had  become 
much  more  than  before  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  justice  for 
the  Irish  Catholics,  and  preached  it  openly  to  all  he  met,  chief- 
ly in  his  native  County  Down.  He  became,  in  consequence, 
obnoxious  to  the  party  that  prevailed  all  over  the  island, 
lost  a  great  part  of  his  property,  and  his  son,  the  father  of 
Mr.  Kirkbride,  after  having  married,  and  educated,  at  least 
partly,  his  children,  thought  he  had  better  realize  what  re- 
mained of  his  property,  and  come  to  the  IS'ew  World.  He 
settled  in  New  York,  increased  his  wealth,  and  left  enough 
to  his  son,  the  gentleman  w^e  know  already,  to  become  one 
of  the  merchant  princes  of  the  largest  city  on  the  continent. 

But  the  memories  of  '  98  were  always  fresh  in  the  minds 
of  all  the  members  of  the  family.  Mr.  Ralph  S.  Kirkbride 
in  particular  had  gathered  all  the  books  which  narrated 
anything  connected  with  the  struggle ;  they  occupied  a 
conspicuous  part  of  his  library  ;  he  often  read  them  and 
spoke  of  those  times.  Vinegar  HiU,  especially,  was  a  spot 
sacred  to  him  on  account  of  all  he  had  heard  from  his 
father.  Doyle  himself  did  not  know  so  much,  because,  as 
Mr.  Kirkbride  knew  him  to  be  a  native  of  Tipperary,  he 
never  thought  proper  to  talk  to  him  about  matters  on  which 
he  thought  him  poorly  informed. 

Exactly  at  two  o'clock,  0' Byrne  was  in  the  warehouse  on 


22  LOUISA  EIBKBRIDE. 

Beaver  Street.  He  merely  touched  his  hat  to  Doyle,  who 
was  busy  on  the  sidewalk,  and  walked  into  the  office  where 
Mr.  Kirkbride  was  seated  alone.  This  gentleman  recog- 
nized his  visitor,  motioned  him  to  a  seat,  and  said:  "My 
dear  friend,  I  wished  to  speak  with  you  of  Vinegar  Hill, 
but  the  very  word  produces  on  you  such  an  impression, 
that  I  do  not  know  how  to  begin." 

"Excuse  me,  sir,"  said  0' Byrne,  "but  this  morning  the 
question,  being  quite  unexpected,  revived  so  many  painful 
recollections,  that  I  could  not  help  it.  Now  I  am  more 
quiet,  and  can  tell  you  all  I  know,  since  you  are  good 
enough  to  feel  an  interest  in  it." 

Then  a  succession  of  questions  and  answers  followed, 
which  filled  Mr.  Kirkbride  with  sympathy  for  poor  O' Byrne. 
After  having  inquired  how  many  they  were  in  the  family ; 
what  he  could  do  himself  ;  if  he  was  a  gardener  as  well  as 
a  farmer — "because,  you  know,  I  am  a  Commissioner  of  the 
Central  Park,  and  can  furnish  you  with  work  there  if  you 
are  competent," — he  dismissed  him,  saying:  "Come  to- 
morrow morning,  and  do  the  best  you  can." 

O' Byrne  was  going  away  in  great  glee,  and  had  already 
reached  the  door,  when  he  was  called  back  and  made  to  sit 
down  again. 

"I  am  afraid,"  said  the  gentleman,  "that  I  have  been 
carried  away  by  my  feelings ;  I  cannot  let  you  go  without 
asking  you  if  you  can  refer  to  any  reliable  person ;  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  you,  but  what  you  said  may  be  all  false. 
Tell  me  :  whom  do  you  know  here  in  New  York?" 

The  only  person  whom  0' Byrne  could  refer  to  was  Doyle  ; 
he  had  to  come  out  with  the  name.  The  good  Tipj)erary 
man  was  suddenly  called  before  his  employer,  and  rebuked 
for  not  having  done  precisely  what  he  had  thought  best  not 
to  do.  Yet,  in  our  opinion,  he  had  been  perfectly  right ; 
had  he  spoken  first  for  his  friend,  the  thing  most  probably 
would  have  miscarried. 

"Well,  Doyle,"  said  Mr.  Kirkbride,  in  conclusion,  "to 
punish  you  for  your  carelessness  about  your  friend,  I  want 
you  to  attend  yourself  to  the  removal  of  the  family  to-mor- 


pm\\  J 


THE    KIRKBRIDE    FAMILY    AT    UlNNER, 


A  HARD   WINTER,  23 

row  morning.  I  will  see  that  somebody  takes  your  place  in 
the  store." 

There  was  Joy  that  evening  in  the  poor  apartment  of  the 
O' Byrnes.  Doyle  was  there  as  on  the  previous  evening, 
and  after  a  hearty  supper,  he  thought  he  would  have  com- 
mitted a  heavy  sin  had  he  not  ordered,  at  his  own  expense, 
whatever  was  needed  to  brew  some  good  Irish  punch.  All 
rejoiced,  even  Mrs.  0' Byrne,  who,  however,  could  not  taste 
of  the  bererage  ;  in  the  last  few  days  her  illness  had  so 
much  increased  that  they  would  evidently  have  trouble  in 
removing  her  so  far  up  town  the  following  day. 

But  what  happened  in  Mr.  Kirkbride's  dining-room  when 
he  returned  home  ?    This  deserves  consideration. 

The  apartment  was  large,  wainscoted  with  English  oak ; 
the  walls  above  of  a  light  buff  color ;  gTaceful  arabesques 
running  down  along  all  the  angles  and  corners  ;  the  ceiling 
ornamented  in  its  contour  with  fruits,  flowers,  and  birds, 
and  in  the  centre  with  a  lively  group  of  "putti,"  as  they 
say  in  Italy,  emerging  from  light- tinted  clouds,  and  playing 
with  doves  and  Indian  blue  sparrows.  Bituminous  coal, 
from  Liverpool,  was  burning  brightly  in  the  grate,  and 
spread  a  gentle  heat  through  the  room.  At  one  corner  an 
open  door  communicated  vnX\\  a  small  conservatory,  where 
many  plants,  but  chiefly  tuberoses,  taken  a  month  before 
from  the  garden,  were  in  full  bloom,  and  filled  the  apart- 
ment with  the  sweetest  fragrance. 

The  table  was  served  for  three  :  Mr.  Kirkbride  at  the 
head,  reserved  in  presence  of  the  servants,  looked  every 
inch  the  master  of  the  house  ;  his  wife  sat  opposite,  dressed 
neatly  in  simple  black  for  the  loss  of  a  child  who  had  died 
a  short  time  before ;  all  that  could  be  seen  in  her  was  defer- 
ence to  her  husband,  and  a  heart-felt  enjoyment  of  his  com- 
pany ;  on  her  left,  a  young  man  about  twenty,  their  only 
son  and  child  since  the  death  of  their  little  girl,  appeared 
tired,  and  looked  as  if  his  mind  was  a  hundred  miles  away  ; 
his  name  was  Frederick. 

The  lady  bowed  her  head  at  first,  evidently  in  silent 
prayer ;  the  gentleman  remaining  meanwhile  in  a  respect- 


24  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

ful  position,  whilst  the  young  man,  leaning  back  in  his 
chair,  appeared  to  study  artistically  the  group  of  children 
pictured  above.  The  light  came  from  a  large  chandelier,  in 
which  the  gas  burned  brightly. 

During  the  meal,  Mr.  Kirkbride  spoke  almost  all  the 
time,  his  Avife  occasionally  interposing  a  word  or  two.  He 
described  the  distress  that  began  to  prevail  in  the  city. 
The  applications  for  work  were  so  incessant  at  the  store 
that  most  of  Doyle's  time  as  porter  was  employed  in  send- 
ing them  gently  away.  *'Our  Republican  masters,"  said 
Mr.  Kirkbride— he  was  himself  a  Democrat— ''have  thought 
they  were  doing  wonders  in  stopping  all  the  public  works, 
because,  forsooth,  of  the  misdeeds  of  one  or  two  rascally 
contractors  ;  and  they  have  let  loose  famine  and  desolation 
upon  us.  But  you,  my  dear,"  he  added,  ''are  you  also 
pestered  with  beggars  ? " 

"Not  enough  to  my  taste,"  replied  the  lady.  "From 
Forty-second  Street  up  here  Madison  Avenue  is  a  desert, 
and  the  poor  go  mostly,  I  suppose,  to  more  crowded  thor- 
oughfares. To-day,  however,  I  have  had  a  very  strange 
adventure  which  I  must  relate  to  you.  You  have  spoken 
long  enough  during  dinner,  I  must  now  have  my  turn. 

"About  twelve  o'clock,  I  was  seeing  a  friend  to  the  door  ; 
she  was  not  yet  down  the  stoop,  when  a  wild  little  girl,  ten 
or  twelve  years  old,  ran  up,  pushed  against  me,  and  ex- 
claimed :  '  Let  me  in,  marm,  I  am  hungry,  and  my  mother 
is  sick.'  She  had  on  a  very  short  and  tattered  petticoat, 
no  stockings,  and  a  pair  of  old  shoes,  much  too  large  for 
her  feet.  I  felt  compassion  for  her,  took  her  down  to  the 
kitchen,  told  Fanny  the  scullion  to  go  with  her  to  the 
lower  bath-room  and  wash  her  well  with  warm  water  and 
soap,  as  her  poor  little  legs  were  as  black  as  soot.  Fanny 
at  first  demurred,  'She  was  not  going,'  she  said,  'to  do 
any  such  office  for  a  low  Irish  girl.'  I  had  not  thought  of 
that,  and  asked  the  child  her  name:  'Jemima  Hep' orth,' 
she  said :  so  she  was  an  American  or  English,  and  there  was 
no  difficulty  to  have  myself  obeyed.  I  ran  up  stairs  for  an 
old  dress  of  our  poor  Janet's  " — this  was  the  name  of  her 


A  HARD   WINTER.  25 

little  dead  dangliter — ''and  bronglit  it  down  just  as  Fanny 
was  hastily  finishing  her  distasteful  task.  But  when  I  told 
the  servant  girl  to  take  off  the  child's  old  rags,  and  destroy 
them,  the  little  vixen  screamed,  and  would  not  allow  it,  at 
least  until  she  had  taken  what  was  in  the  pockets.  Then  I 
remarked  that  under  the  old  ragged  petticoat  there  was  a 
huge  pouch  full  of  all  kinds  of  small  articles,  evidently 
stolen  ;  some  few  ten-cent  silver  pieces,  many  twenty-five  or 
fifty-cent  shinplasters,  small  pocket  -  knives  and  scissors, 
nice  little  combs,  and,  if  you  please,  a  big  ring  which  ap- 
peared to  be  gold,  with  many  similar  objects,  which  I  kept, 
of  course,  and  which  you  will  see.  The  little  rascal  pre- 
tended at  first  that  she  had  found  them  in  the  streets  ;  she 
said  afterward  that  they  had  been  given  her  by  little  girls 
or  boys  ;  but  she  insisted  on  having  them  restored  to  her. 
I  replied  that  I  would  give  them  only  to  her  mother ;  so  she 
had  better  tell  her  to  come  and  speak  with  me.  But  to 
oblige  her  to  go  I  had  to  threaten  her  with  a  whipping  from 
Fanny,  and  then  she  ran  away.  I  intend  to  speak  seri- 
ously to  the  mother  when  she  comes,"  was  the  innocent 
conclusion  of  the  excellent  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  story. 

Her  husband  could  not  help  laughing.  ''Wait  for  her ! " 
said  he;  "do  you  not  see  that  the  child  merely  acts  on 
the  promptings  of  her  mother,  who  must  live  handsomely  on 
her  thefts  ?    You  are  very  simple,  Mrs.  Kirkbride  !  " 

This  natural  exclamation  brought  an  ugly  grin  to  Fred- 
erick's face.  He  appeared  highly  pleased  at  the  gentle 
rebuke  his  mother  had  received  ;  and  a  similar  but  yet 
more  ugly  grin  appeared  on  the  faces  of  the  servants 
around  the  table.  Mr.  Kirkbride  immediately  noticed  his 
oversight,  and  bowing  to  his  wife,  who  was  meanwhile  all 
suffused  wath  very  unusual  blushes,  "  I  must  correct  myself, 
my  dear  Louisa,"  he  said,  "since  it  is  far  more  honorable 
to  be  ten  times  imposed  upon  by  miserable  wretches,  than 
once  to  refuse  relief  in  a  real  case  of  need.  To-morrow  all 
the  stealings  of  the  little  girl  must  be  sent  with  a  note  to 
the  nearest  police  station."  All  was  perfectly  still  in  the 
room,  and  the  grins  had  disappeared. 


26  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

Meanwhile,  tlie  dessert  had  just  been  placed  on  the  table, 
and  the  servants  withdrew. 

"  Now,  dear  Lou,  I  have  news  for  you  that  will  give  you 
pleasure." 

He  always  called  his  wife  so  when  he  wished  to  delight 
her,  and  the  servants  were  not  there  ;  and  no  expression 
was  sweeter  to  the  heart  of  the  lady,  to  whom  it  recalled  so 
vividly  the  first  days  of  their  wedded  life. 

"You  mean,  dear  Ralph,"  she  said,  "that  the  shanty  is 
not  to  be  destroyed?  " 

"  Not  for  this^\inter,"  replied  Mr.  Kirkbride  ;  "  a  respect- 
able family,  I  think,  is  coming  to  occupy  it  to-morrow." 

"Are  they  Irish  \  " 

"  They  are  ;  and  although  you  liked  those  that  left  the 
other  day,  I  am  sure  that  you  will  like  the  new  occupants 
better  still." 

"It's  too  bad !  "  ejaculated  Frederick. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  said  his  father. 

"I  mean,"  replied  the  son,  " that  I  relied  on  your  pro- 
mise that  the  shanty  would  directly  disappear,  and  you 
disappoint  me." 

"  I  promised  you,"  said  Mr.  Kirkbride,  "because  I  really 
intended  to  do  so  ;  but  I  see  that  it  must  yet  stand  for  the 
sake  of  charity." 

"Charity  is  a  very  fine  word,  but  not,  in  my  opinion, 
when  it  is  coupled  with  the  Irish,"  said  Frederick. 

"You  forget,"  dryly  interposed  his  father,  "that  I  am 
myself  an  Irishman." 

The  son  bit  his  lips,  and  blurted  out  almost  indistinctly, 
"  Oh,  I  spoke  of  Irish  Catholics." 

"What  objection  have  you  to  them?"  said  the  father. 
"I  have  none." 

"They  are  despised  by  everybody,"  replied  the  hopeful 
son.  "  Only  imagine,  that  a  couple  of  weeks  ago,  a  friend 
of  mine,  (;oming  out  of  this  house  and  looking  at  the  shanty, 
asked  me  :  '  How  much  a  month  does  your  father  receive 
for  the  Tint  f '     What  could  I  answer  ? ' ' 

"That  friend,  my  son,  was  a  blackguard,  who  insulted 


A  HARD   WINTER.  27 

your  father,  and  you  ouglit  to  liave  resented  it.  I  wonder, 
besides,  that  you  have  no  more  wit ;  you  might  have  an- 
swered him  that  I  was  just  looking  for  a  collector  of  the 
rint^  and  on  apiDlication  to  me,  he  might  be  appointed,  then 
he  would  know." 

''Oh,  had  I  said  that,  he  would  have  cut  me." 

''  Why  did  you  not  cut  him  first  ?  I  have  remarked,  lately, 
that  you  select  your  friends  very  poorly.  I  must  look  more 
closely  to  those  connections,  for  this  is  a  very  serious  affair. 
Look  here,  Frederick,  next  year  you  will  be  of  age  ;  I  have 
already  tried  to  acquaint  you  with  my  business,  and  in  my 
fond  dreams,  years  ago,  I  thought  I  would  make  a  partner 
of  you  when  you  became  of  age  ;  I  am  now  afraid  to  do  it, 
mainly  on  account  of  your  friends." 

"  My  friends,  sir,"  said  Frederick,  insolently,  to  his  father, 
''  are  all  honorable  and  most  gentlemanly.  I  greatly  prefer 
their  society  to  that  of  the  low  Irish." 

At  this  moment  the  poor  mother  tried  to  allay  the  storm. 

''What  objection,"  she  said,  "my  dear  Freddy,  have 
you  to  consent  to  what  pleases  both  your  father  and  my- 
self ?  For  all  this  results  from  the  coming  of  that  new 
family.  It  is  your  father's  right  to  admit  them  or  not ;  he 
has  made  up  his  mind,  and  you  ought  to  think  that  he  has 
good  reasons  for  it.  Now,  be  a  good  boy,  as  you  were  not 
long  ago,  when  everything  was  so  pleasant  in  the  house." 

Frederick  was  cooling  down,  and  he  had  time  to  perceive 
his  own  imprudence.  So  he  appeared  for  a  moment  to  hesi- 
tate. 

"Well,  Freddy,"  added  the  mother,  "tell  your  father 
that  you  are  sorry  for  what  has  happened,  and  that  you 
wiU  willingly  submit  to  his  good  pleasure." 

The  young  man,  although  much  against  the  grain,  saw 
it  was  the  only  thing  he  had  to  do.  He  stood  up,  therefore, 
and,  bowing  slightly  to  his  father,  merely  said:  "Excuse 
me,  father,  if  I  have  spoken  too  warmly  ;  that  miserable  hut 
ought  not  to  bring  on  a  misunderstanding  between  you  and 
me.  Let  it  stand  and  be  occupied  as  formerly  ;  I  will  not 
think  of  the  affair  any  more."     He  was  going  to  leave  the 


28  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

room,  when  Mr.  Kirkbride,  without  trying  to  stop  him, 
said: 

"  You  will  do  well,  Fred,  to  reflect  on  some  of  my  words, 
because  they  really  express  my  mind." 

When  Frederick  had  left,  the  father,  drawing  near  to  his 
wife,  took  her  hand  gently,  and  said,  in  a  very  subdued 
voice : 

"  Tell  me,  Lou-Lou,  what  is  all  that  fuss  about  the  Irish  ? " 
Mr.  Kirkbride,  like  a  great  many  other  fathers  of  families, 
was  perfectly  ignorant  of  many  things  that  happened,  or 
were  said,  in  his  house. 

''Well,  my  dearest  Ralph,"  said  the  lady,  '^in  the  last 
two  or  three  years  Fred  has  shown  an  uncommon  animosity 
against  them.  He  did  not  dare  to  say  a  word  before  you, 
because  he  knew  you  were  an  Irishman  and  had  a  partiality 
for  Ireland ;  but  he  spoke  unreservedly  to  me,  because  he 
thought  my  case  was  different.  Born  in  New  York,  of  an 
English  family,  I  was  brought  up,  I  may  say,  in  the  hatred, 
or,  at  least,  contempt  of  the  Irish.  Mr.  Brewster,  my  father, 
and  my  dearest  mother,  had  seen  scarcely  more  than  one  or 
two  of  them  in  their  whole  life  ;  for  then  the  Irish  were  not 
numerous  in  this  city,  and,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bleecker 
Street  where  we  lived,  at  that  time  the  head-quarters  of 
fashion,  it  was  not  easy  to  find  an  Irishman,  either  in  the 
shops,  or  in  respectable  houses.  So  I  knew  them  not,  and 
must  confess  it  to  you,  despised  them.  I  have  seen,  during 
the  last  few  years,  a  great  many  of  them,  and  found  them 
so  different  from  what  I  had  thought,  that  I  took  a  real  liking 
for  some  of  them.  This  was  the  case  particularly  for  the 
family  that  occupied  the  shanty  so  long  a  time.  Yet  I  can- 
not deny  that  there  is  yet  in  me  something  of  the  old  leaven, 
and  that  the  very  name  of  Irish  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  dis- 
tasteful to  me.  You  promise  me,  dear  husband,  that  the 
coming  family  will  be  better  yet  than  the  last ;  it  is  difficult 
for  me  to  believe  it,  because  I  thought  the  Dolans,  who 
lived  here  so  long,  were  a  rare  exception  in  that  race.  But 
we  shall  see,  and  I  sincerely  hope  it  will  be  as  you  say. 

*^  Meanwhile,  Freddy  knew  my  weakness,  and  influenced 


A  HARD   WINTEB.  29 

me  so  mucli  that  I  have  not  for  a  long  time  admitted  a 
single  Irish  servant  in  the  house.  You  know  that  you 
leave  their  choice  entirely  to  me,  except  that  of  your  foot- 
man, which  you  reserve  to  yourself.  Well,  I  must  confess 
that  John  is,  after  all,  the  most  honest  of  our  domestics, 
and  that  I  have  no  great  confidence  in  many  of  my  selec- 
tions. Most  of  them  have  no  religion  whatever,  which  is  a 
very  ugly  thing  in  poor  people,  and  if  some  of  them  occa- 
sionally are  Methodists  or  Baptists,  I  confess  that  I  cannot 
understand  anything  in  their  religion.  It  would  be  absurd 
in  me  to  try  to  influence  them,  yet  I  feel  it  a  great  draw- 
back not  to  be  able  to  say  a  good  word  to  any  of  them. 
Dr.  Dixon,  of  Trinity  Chapel,  for  whose  advice  I  must  have 
a  thorough  respect,  told  me  several  times  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  master  or  mistress  of  a  house  to  see  to  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  servants,  and  I  always  replied  to  him  that  I 
could  not  see  how  to  fulfill  such  a  Christian  duty.  Had  we 
Irish  people  here,  I  would  not  try,  indeed,  to  make  them 
Episcopalians,  but  from  what  I  saw  of  the  Dolans,  it  would 
be  much  more  easy  to  have  a  common  understanding,  and 
that  would  be  a  source  of  delight  to  me. 

''As  to  the  motley  group  we  have  here,  there  is  only  one 
thing,  religiously  speaking,  in  which  they  are  unanimous, 
and  that  is,  to  hate  and  despise  the  Irish.  They  all  have 
that  kind  of  religion,  your  footman  John  as  well  as  the 
others.  Xow,  dear  Kalph,  you  are  fully  enlightened  with 
respect  to  the  question  you  put  to  me,  '  What  is  all  that 
fuss  about  the  Irish  ? '  " 

Mr.  Kirkbride  looked  serious,  and  said,  "This  must  be 
attended  to ;  you  will,  I  hox)e,  some  of  these  days,  allow 
me  to  advise  you  on  the  subject  of  the  choice  of  servants  ; 
several  of  them  must  be  dismissed."  Saying  this  he  kissed 
his  wife  affectionately,  and  left  her  to  go  out  to  his  club. 

In  James  Street,  Doyle  had  not  been  idle.  He  had  pro- 
cured the  key  of  the  shanty,  by  sending  a  boy  all  the  way 
up  to  Madison  Avenue,  with  a  note  (written  by  a  friend)  for 
Mr.  Kirkbride.     He  had  spoken  to  a  carpenter,  who  was  to 


30  LOUISA  KIRKBEIDE. 

be  on  the  spot  exactly  at  seven  o'clock  on  the  following 
day,  with  his  tools  and  a  cart-load  of  lumber,  to  make  the 
most  urgent  repaii's  in  the  poor  dwelling  ;  he  had  gone  to 
Oak  Street  police  station,  and  obtained  from  the  captain, 
a  friend  of  his,  the  promise  that  a  carriage  should  be  sent 
the  following  day  to  convey  Mrs.  O'Byrne  to  her  new  home, 
on  the  excellent  plea,  that  if  the  city  did  not  pay  such  a 
triHe,  it  would  have  to  pay  much  more  for  the  relief  of  the 
poor  woman.  He  had  spoken  to  a  few  friends  who  were 
idle,  and  could  employ  their  time  in  charity,  and  had  made 
them  promise  to  be  at  the  shanty  the  next  day,  to  make 
everything  cozy  and  comfortable  before  the  poor  invalid 
arrived.  It  was  only  after  all  this  had  been  done  that  he 
went  to  the  apartment  of  the  O' Byrnes  and  took  his  supper 
and  his  punch  with  the  family  as  we  have  already  related. 

The  following  day  was  stormy  ;  snow  began  to  fall  early 
in  the  morning,  so  that  when  Doyle  with  the  carpenter 
arrived  at  the  place,  it  lay  an  inch  deep  on  the  ground. 
Still,  the  other  friends  were  on  the  spot  in  due  time ;  they 
all  came  from  the  side  of  Fifth  Avenue,  which  was  then 
a  desert  in  that  neighborhood.  The  whole  forenoon  was 
consumed  in  repairing  the  shanty,  though  it  contained  only 
two  rooms,  with  a  kind  of  out -building  for  a  kitchen. 
Stoves  were  already  put  up,  and  the  interior  arrangements 
were  going  on  favorably,  when  Doyle  returned  to  James 
Street  and  sent  for  the  carriage. 

The  good  man  appeared  deeply  anxious ;  Mrs.  O'Byrne 
had  not  yet  been  so  sick  as  she  then  was  ;  her  husband  had 
remained  all  the  morning  in  her  room,  and  Julia  had  enough 
to  do  to  help  her  mother.  Was  it  safe  to  remove  the  poor 
woman?  On  looking  out  of  the  window  Doyle  saw  Dr. 
O'Donnell,  whom  he  knew  well,  passing  on  the  street;  he 
called  him,  and  having  acquainted  him  in  a  few  words  with 
the  case,  asked  his  opinion.  The  doctor,  after  a  few  mo- 
ments of  observation,  merely  said:  ''The  trip  will  be  hard 
on  her ;  but  she  will  be  so  much  the  better  out  of  this 
wretched  neighborhood,  that  removing  her  is,  after  all,  the 
most  expedient.     Only  be  careful  of  her  on  the  way." 


A  HARD    WINTER.  31 

Both  0' Byrne  and  Doyle  then  wrapped  np  the  sick 
woman  in  blankets  and  coverlets  ;  and  took  her  down  stairs. 
Con,  who  had  gone  before  T\i.th  a  mattress,  had  spread  it  in 
the  roomy  carriage  ;  and  poor  Mrs.  0' Byrne  was  placed  on 
it,  propped  np  with  a  few  pillows.  Jnlia,  mindful  of  the 
doctor's  injunctions,  stretched  herself  in  the  body  of  the 
vehicle  near  her  mother,  ready  at  any  moment  to  cover  her 
with  the  blankets,  and  to  warm  her  up  \^ith  her  embraces 
and  the  sweet  breath  of  her  lips.  0' Byrne  occupied  the 
only  corner  which  was  free,  and  the  carriage  finally  started. 

The  snow,  meanwhile,  had  fallen  to  the  depth  of  eight  or 
ten  inches.  In  the  lower  part  of  the  city  it  disappeared 
nearly  as  soon  as  it  fell ;  but  when  the  carriage  arrived 
above  Fortieth  Street,  where  the  buildings  along  Fifth 
Avenue  began  to  be  few  and  far  between,  it  was  a  real  im- 
pediment in  the  way,  and  a  sleigh  would  have  been  the 
proper  thing.  The  wind  blew  furiously  from  the  north- 
west. The  horses,  having  it  in  front,  could  scarcely  stand 
it ;  they  shook  their  heads  up  and  down,  and  from  their 
bodies,  but  chiefly  from  their  nostrils,  clouds  of  steam 
arose,  to  freeze  in  the  air,  and  fall  as  sleet.  A  keen  cold 
penetrated  everywhere,  and  those  inside  of  the  carriage 
could  not  but  feel  it.  Julia,  after  having  used  all  the  blan- 
kets and  coverlets,  had  to  take  her  own  shawl  from  her 
shoulders  to  wrap  up  her  mother's  feet,  which  she  felt  were 
growing  cold.  It  was  high  time  to  reach  the  spot.  A 
couple  of  miles  more  of  such  traveling  as  this  would  have 
been  fatal  to  the  poor,  uncomplaining  invalid. 

This  was,  however,  the  critical  moment  for  Mrs.  O' Byrne  ; 
for  she  had  to  be  taken  out  of  the  carriage  and  brought 
down,  along  a  narrow  path,  to  the  bottom  of  the  lot,  more 
than  twelve  feet  deep  at  that  place.  She  could  not  but  be 
exposed  to  the  keen  air.  Julia,  as  a  last  resort,  divested 
herself  of  all  the  clothing  she  could  decently  spare  to  add 
to  her  mother's  ^Taps,  and  thus  the  precious  burden  was 
carried  to  the  bed  prepared  for  it  in  the  inner  room  of  the 
shanty. 

During  the  protracted  operation  just  described,  there  were 


32  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

eyes  in  the  mansion  of  tlie  Kirkbrides  which  witnessed  it, 
and  gave  occasion  to  an  incident,  not  without  importance. 
Two  servant  girls — Fanny  was  one  of  them — were  cleaning 
a  room,  and  from  a  window  they  could  see  what  was  pass- 
ing along  Fifth  Avenue. 

''I  declare,"  said  Miss  Fanny,  "those  dirty  Irish  are 
coming.  Look,  look,  Yictorina,  what  a  procession  of  them, 
pouring  down  that  bank  !  " 

"Is  not  that  a  bed  with  sick  people  in  it  ?  "  replied  Miss 
V.     "They  are  surely  bringing  pestilence  with  them." 

"Oh,  see  that  girl,"  said  the  first  of  these  would-be 
ladies.    "I  swear  she's  only  half  dressed."     ... 

We  cannot  continue  to  relate  the  conversation,  which  was 
taking  a  lively  turn.  But  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  who  was  in  the 
next  room,  heard  it,  and  blushed  for  her  sex,  and  made  up 
her  mind  to  follow  her  husband's  advice  about  her  servants. 
She  also  thought  of  going  down  to  the  shanty  as  soon  as 
the  new  family  would  have  rested  awhile.  Her  husband 
had  told  her  that  the  old  woman  was  delicate,  but  not  that 
she  was  so  sick.  The  case  evidently  required  her  presence 
as  soon  as  she  could  go  becomingly. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

A   CHEISTIAiq^  WOMAN. 

Whe]^  Mrs.  Kirkbride  thought  the  newly  arrived  family 
had  had  time  to  settle  and  compose  themselves,  she  went  on 
her  errand  of  charity.  She  found  in  the  first  room  0' Byrne 
and  his  son  warming  themselves  at  a  small  stove.  They 
both  stood  up  and  bowed,  evidently  surprised  at  her  coming. 

^' There  is  somebody  sick  here,"  she  said  ;  ''I  would  like 
to  see  her." 

The  old  man  opened  the  door,  which  was  half  closed,  and 
ushered  her  into  the  inner  room.  Julia  was  seated  on  an 
old  trunk  near  her  mother ;  and  the  patient  appeared  quite 
startled  by  the  coming  of  such  a  visitor. 

''Do  not  fear,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  ''I  am  only  your 
neighbor,  and  I  merely  wish  to  know  how  you  are,  and  if  I 
can  do  anything  for  you." 

''You  are  too  good,  madam,"  replied  the  sick  woman, 
coughing.  "I  feel  very  much  fatigued,  and  I  suppose  I 
must  think  rather  of  my  soul  than  of  my  body." 

These  few  words  were  sufficient  to  determine  a  convulsive 
cough  which  really  frightened  the  lady.  The  face  of  the 
poor  woman  was  emaciated  ;  her  gray  hair  hung  loosely 
from  under  the  clean  white  cap  which  her  daughter  had 
tied  under  her  chin ;  except  a  deep  flush  on  both  cheeks, 
her  skin  was  whiter  than  the  cap  itself ;  but,  chiefly,  the 
distortion  of  the  features  caused  by  a  choking  amounting 
almost  to  suffocation,  really  seemed  to  foretell  a  speedy 
death.  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  full  of  deep  sympathy,  forbade  the 
old  woman  to  try  to  speak  any  more,  and  seating  herseK  on 
3  33 


34  LOUISA  KIBEBRIBE. 

the  trunk  near  Julia,  drew  from  her  pocket  a  small  memo- 
randum-book, out  of  which  she  tore  a  leaf,  and  began  to 
write  a  few  words  with  a  pencil ;  then  folding  the  leaf,  she 
wrote  a  short  address  on  the  outside. 

' '  Can  the  young  man  I  saw  in  the  other  room  go  for  the 
doctor  ? "  she  inquired  of  Julia. 

"Yes,  madam,"  she  replied  ;  ''he  is  my  brother,  andean 
find  out  the  place,  if  you  tell  him." 

As  Con  could  read,  and  had  tramped  the  city  so  long, 
looking  for  work,  and  as  he  used  his  tongue  so  well  when 
there  was  question  of  his  mother,  no  more  trusty  messenger 
could  have  been  found.  He  was  immediately  dispatched, 
and  the  lady,  almost  frightened  to  death,  withdrew  to  her 
apartment,  where  the  physician  would  first  call  on  her. 

He  was  soon  there,  and  she  exclaimed,  as  soon  as  she  saw 
him:  '' My  dear  Doctor  Dillon,  I  want  you  badly.  There 
is  an  old  woman  down  in  the  shanty  who  came  to-day  ^\ith 
her  family,  and  I  am  afraid  she  is  dying.  Go  quick,  and 
come  back  directly  to  tell  me  what  you  think  of  her." 

After  about  twenty  minutes  the  physician  had  examined 
the  case,  given  to  Mrs.  O' Byrne  something  which  he  had 
brought  with  him,  after  a  question  or  two  put  to  Con  in  his 
own  house,  and  was  back  in  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  parlor. 

''Calm  yourself,  madam,"  he  said;  "there  is  no  danger 
of  immediate  death  ;  the  case  is  certainly  serious,  but  not 
so  bad  as  that.  The  lungs  are  not  seriously  injured  ;  with 
that  cough  she  could  yet  live  twenty  years.  The  worst  of 
it  is  that  she  has  suffered  great  privations,  and  there  is  fear 
of  complete  exhaustion." 

The  good  doctor  did  not  say  that  there  was  real  danger 
of  typhoid  fever  ;  he  knew  that  a  single  sporadic  case  can- 
not, as  many  foolish  people  believe,  bring  on  contagion,  and 
so  he  did  very  well  not  to  speak  of  it. 

"  I  know,  madam,"  he  added,  "that  you  have  some  good 
port  wine  ;  send  her  a  bottle.  I  told  the  girl  how  to  give 
it.  Tell  your  cook,  also,  to  make  for  her  some  good  French 
houillon,  such  as  you  give  me  when  I  come  to  dine ;  it  is 
much  better  than  our  much-vaunted  beef-tea.     The  old 


A   CHRISTIAN  WOMAN.  35 

woman  has  an  excellent  nurse  in  her  daughter,  and  that  is 
a  great  point.     I  will  come  back  to-morrow. 

''!N'ow  that  I  have  finished  my  explanation,  and  that  you 
are  no  more,  I  hope,  in  a  flutter,  please  tell  me  how  it  is 
that  you  have  lately  become  so  much  attached  to  Irish  peo- 
ple. The  Dolans,  whom  I  also  visited  when  they  were  sick, 
are  scarcely  gone,  and  now  you  bring  in  the  O' Byrnes,  and 
after  them,  I  suppose,  we  shall  have  the  0'  Shaughnesseys. 
When  I  knew  Miss  Brewster,  long  ago,  before  she  was  mar- 
ried, she  was  not  so  well  inclined  to  that  race ;  how  is  this  ? " 

''My  dear  doctor,"  replied  the  lady,  laughing,  "I  do  not 
know  how  it  is  myself.  "We  must  do  good,  you  know,  to 
everybody,  and  the  fact  is  that  I  find  the  Irish  much  more 
religious  than  any  other  people  of  the  same  class.  Would 
you  believe,  that  when  I  went  to  see  the  old  woman,  before 
I  sent  for  you,  and  I  inquired  what  I  could  do  for  her,  she 
merely  replied  that  '  she  supposed  she  must  think  rather  of 
her  soul  than  of  her  body.'  Now  this  is  truly  Christian, 
doctor  ;  is  it  not  ?  If  any  of  my  servants  are  very  sick,  they 
never  speak  thus ;  and  I  like  the  poor  chiefly  when  they 
have  truly  religious  feelings  with  which  I  can  sympathize." 

''These  are  very  good  reasons,  my  dear  madam,"  said 
the  doctor,  "and  I  wiU  not  try  to  bring  you  back  to  your 
first  way  of  thinking.  I  have  just  spoken  wdth  all  those 
you  have  here ;  and  I  think  they  are,  aU  of  them,  worthy 
people." 

Our  readers  can  see  that  the  doctor  was  a  very  old  friend 
of  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

"I  have  you  there,"  replied  the  lady.  "I  see  that  you 
are  an  Irishman  yourself.  I^ow  that  I  think  of  it,  your  name 
is  Irish." 

"It  is,"  said  Dr.  Dillon,  "  and  I  have  never  made  a  secret 
of  it." 

"Excellent,"  said  the  lady  ;  "I  will  tell  it  to  Dr.  Dixon. 
He  does  not  imagine,  good  man,  that  he  has  an  Irishman  in 
his  congregation." 

"Oh,  he  knows  it,"  said  Dr.  Dillon  ;  "and  there  are  sev- 
eral others  besides,  who  do  not  speak  of  it  so  openly  as  I  do. 


36  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

But  seriously,  my  dear  madam,  do  you  not  see  tliat  half 
tlie  world  in  this  country  is  Irish  ?  If  I  were  to  show  it  to 
you,  beginning  by  your  o\vn  husband,  you  would  be  really 
astonished." 

The  lady  could  not  but  open  her  eyes.  Dr.  DiUon,  reit- 
erating his  statements,  and  congratulating  her  on  having 
such  good  people  as  the  O' Byrnes  under  her  protection, 
withdrew. 

These  were  good  words  on  the  part  of  the  doctor,  which 
could  not  but  stimulate  the  charity,  already  so  active,  of 
Mrs.  Kirkbride.  She  had  to  send  the  wine  first,  but  could 
not  employ  any  of  the  common  servants  of  the  house,  for 
fear  that  something  unpleasant  should  happen.  Fortu- 
nately, there  was  in  the  mansion  a  little  girl,  fourteen  years 
old,  by  the  name  of  Eosa,  whom  the  lady  always  employed 
when  she  had  some  message  to  send  to  the  Dolans.  The 
poor  child,  constantly  living  in  the  kitchen,  heard  all  that 
the  servants  said  of  the  Irish,  particularly  of  those  who 
occupied  the  shanty,  and  as  she  had  occasion  often  to  see 
the  latter,  she  wondered,  and  opened  wide  her  large  blue 
eyes,  comparing  what  she  heard  with  what  she  saw.  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  gave  her  the  bottle  of  wine,  and  told  her  to  call 
O' Byrne  and  his  son  to  her.  They  soon  came,  and  were 
greatly  surprised  to  hear  her  say  that,  as  she  intended  to  visit 
them  occasionally,  they  must  find  at  least  some  chairs  and 
other  things  she  might  want  in  their  cottage.  Tliere  were 
plenty  of  such  things  useless  in  her  house,  and  they  had  better 
take  them  and  carry  them  away.  So,  from  the  lower  apart- 
ments of  the  mansion,  they  took  what  could  handsomely 
furnish  their  hut,  besides  some  necessary  articles  of  linen, 
of  which  the  family  were  greatly  in  want.  The  servants,  who 
witnessed  these  proceedings,  could  scarcely  believe  their 
eyes,  as  the  like  had  never  happened  to  the  Dolans,  who,  in 
fact,  had  never  needed  it. 

Thus  the  day  closed  most  happily,  and  the  lady  retired  at 
night  with  the  glad  consciousness  of  having  done  something 
which  made  others  fortunate,  without  impoverishing  herself . 
She  did  not  think  of  another  advantage,  which  she  could  not 


A   CHRISTIAN  WOMAN.  37 

yet  even  suspect.  The  0' Byrnes  were  already  devoted  to 
her,  and  if  twenty  ruffians  had  come  at  night  to  attack  Mr. 
Kirkbride's  house,  the  father  and  son  alone  would  have 
beaten  back  the  scoundrels,  or  perished  in  the  attempt. 

The  following  day,  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock,  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  went  to  see  how  the  old  woman  had  spent  the 
night.  On  such  occasions,  she  always  followed  a  clean  little 
path  in  the  lot  itself,  which  had  been  arranged  in  the  time 
of  the  Dolans.  She  found  the  door  of  the  shanty  half  open, 
and  hearing  no  noise  whatever,  she  looked  cautiously  inside, 
and  saw  that  0' Byrne,  his  son,  and  his  daughter  were  on 
their  knees,  turned  toward  the  inner  room,  and  evidently 
engaged  in  prayer. 

What  did  it  mean  ?  Was  the  old  woman,  after  all,  dead  ? 
She  entered  without  knocking,  and  Julia,  who  was  nearest 
the  outside  door,  hearing  somebody  coming,  turned  round, 
saw  her,  and  stood  up. 

''What  is  the  matter  ?"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

''The  priest  is  with  my  mother,"  answered  the  girl. 

"  May  I  stay  ? "  replied  the  lady. 

"Certainly,  madam,"  answered  Julia,  and  taking  a  chair, 
she  placed  it  near  the  open  inside  door,  and  offered  it  to  the 
lady,  thinking  she  would  sit  on  it.  But  she  knelt,  like  the 
others,  leaning  on  the  back  of  the  chair.  The  priest,  a  ven- 
erable man,  with  white  flowing  hair,  and  a  white  stole  around 
his  neck,  was  kneeling  also  before  a  small  table  covered  with 
a  clean  napkin  ;  two  candles  were  burning  in  small  candle- 
sticks, and  a  crucifix  stood  between  them.  The  clergy- 
man had  just  heard  the  confession  of  Mrs.  O' Byrne,  and 
was  beginning  the  communion  service.  He  was  at  the  time 
saying  some  prayers  in  Latin,  which  Mrs.  Kirkbride  could 
not  understand,  and  when  he  got  up  to  extend  his  hand  over 
the  sick  woman,  and  then  address  her,  the  lady  saw  that  there 
was  also  on  the  table  a  small  silver  vessel,  placed  on  a  very 
clean  piece  of  muslin  and  lace.  She  understood  directly  that 
this  vessel  contained  the  Holy  Eucharist.  She  herself  firmly 
believed  in  the  real  presence  of  our  Lord,  and  the  many 
prayer  books,  edited  by  good  Dr.  Dixon,  of  Trinity  Chapel, 


38  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

mostly  pilfered  from  French.  Cattiolic  authors,  translated 
into  English,  were  in  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  possession,  and  she 
used  them  with  great  devotion  whenever  she  was  induced 
by  the  well-meaning  director  of  her  conscience  to  partake 
of  the  Sacrament.     So  she  was  not  exactly  a  stranger  here. 

The  priest  said  a  very  few  words  to  the  sick  woman : 
"  She  was  stretched  on  a  bed  of  sickness  and  suffering,  as 
our  Saviour  had  been  stretched  on  the  cross ;  but  He,  the 
Son  of  God,  was  refused  any,  even  the  least,  consolation 
from  His  Father,  who  appeared  to  have  altogether  aban- 
doned Him.  She,  in  her  distress,  was  blessed  with,  the 
presence  of  the  Divine  Redeemer,  who  came  to  bring  her 
much  more  than  consolation — the  sweet  effusion  of  his  love 
and  tenderness.  He  had  pardoned  his  enemies  on  the  cross ; 
she  most  certainly  would  not  even  remember  whatever  in- 
jury she  might  have  received  at  any  time  from  any  one. 
He,  the  author  of  life,  was  going  to  give  her  the  sure  pledge 
of  life  eternal,  which.  He  himself  said,  was  to  eat  his  flesh 
and  to  drink  his  blood." 

The  lady  saw  a  few  big  tears  running  down  the  cheeks  of 
the  poor  patient,  and  the  ceremony  was  soon  over. 

The  clergyman,  having  wrapped  up  his  things,  drew  near 
to  Mrs.  O' Byrne's  bedside,  and  told  her,  with  visible  sympa- 
thy, that  he  did  not  think  the  danger  near  enough  to  re- 
quire Extreme  Unction  ;  he  would  come  to  visit  her  the  fol- 
lowing day.  Then,  taking  his  hat  and  cane,  he  prepared  to 
depart.  In  passing  through  the  outer  room  he  was  sur- 
prised to  see  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  whom  he  knew  by  sight,  with- 
out ever  having  said  a  word  to  her.  He  merely  bowed  to 
her,  shook  old  O' Byrne's  hand,  smiled  to  Julia  and  Con, 
and  went  his  way  up  the  bank  to  Fifth  Avenue. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  nearly  bewildered  ;  she  never  ex- 
pected to  see  anything  of  the  kind  that  morning,  and 
wanted  absolutely  to  speak  with  Mrs.  O' Byrne. 

''  Are  you  in  a  great  hurry,  madam  ?  "  said  Julia. 

"  Not  exactly,"  she  answered. 

''Then,"  replied  Julia,  "please  sit  down  a  moment  in 
this  room,  until  my  mother  has  finished  her  thanksgiving 


A   CHRISTIAN  WOMAN.  39 

to  God.  She  does  not  like  to  be  disturbed  after  commu- 
nion.  There  are  people  who  don't  care  for  it,  and  talk  and 
chat  directly  after  receiving  ;  my  mother  is  not  such  a  one. 
In  a  quarter  of  an  hour  she  will  be  free  to  talk  with  you." 

"You  are  both  quite  right,"  replied  the  lady  ;  ''it  was 
very  thoughtlessly  that  I  asked  to  see  her  directly.  I  will 
wait  and  talk  with  you  first." 

0' Byrne  and  his  sen  had  already  left  the  shanty  ;  and 
the  door  between  the  two  rooms  was  closed. 

"Tell  me,  child,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  "your  conversa- 
tion is  not  that  of  a  girl  brought  up  in  the  streets.  Have 
you  received  any  education  ? " 

"Well,  madam,  I  learned  to  write  and  cipher  in  our 
village  school,  and  then  I  spent  eighteen  months  in  the  con- 
vent of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Bridget,  at  Enniscorthy." 

"  Enniscorthy  !  "  said  the  lady  ;  "1  have  heard  my  hus- 
band speak  often  of  that  place  ;  in  what  part  of  Ireland  is 
it?" 

"  In  County  Wexford,  madam." 

"  Oh,  I  see  how  you  came  here,  and  indeed  I  am  glad  of 
it.     What  did  you  learn  in  that  convent  ? " 

"The  usual  branches,  madam,  grammar,  geography,  and 
arithmetic ;  and,  besides,  sewing,  embroidery,  and  house- 
keeping." 

"I  see  the  proofs  of  your  housekeeping;  you  have  al- 
ready arranged  these  two  miserable  rooms  so  neatly ;  but 
I  would  like  to  look  at  some  specimens  of  your  sewing  and 
embroidery." 

"Most  of  it,  madam,  was  left  or  sold  in  Ireland,  before 
we  started  ;  but  I  have  yet  a  few  pieces  that  I  brought  with 
me." 

Tlien  Julia  went  to  the  trunk  on  which  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
had  sat  the  day  before,  and  brought  for  her  inspection  a 
handkerchief  bordered  with  Mechlin  point,  a  cap  wdth  pro- 
fuse embroidery,  which  she  had  made  for  her  mother,  who 
never  put  it  on  her  head,  and  several  square  pieces  of  silk 
with  religious  emblems  and  mottoes. 

"Really!"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  "this  is  not  bad;  the 


40  LOUISA  KIRKBHIDE. 

fashion  of  it  would  not  well  suit  this  country,  but  the  sew- 
ing and  embroidery  could  scarcely  be  better  ;"  and  then, 
laughing,  she  said,  ''Will  you  make  me  a  few  handker- 
chiefs some  of  these  days?  I  will  direct  you  as  to  the 
fashion  of  this  country." 

''Oh,  madam,"  said  poor  Julia,  "if  I  could  fill  your 
presses  with  linen  of  my  own  making,  I  would  be  too  hap- 
py, after  what  you  have  done  for  my  mother  ! " 

At  this  moment  the  old  lady  in  the  other  room  was  heard 
coughing. 

' '  I  think, ' '  remarked  the  girl,  ' '  we  can  go  to  see  her  now. ' ' 

A  rocking-chair,  brought  the  day  before  from  the  man- 
sion, was  in  the  room ;  Julia  placed  it  at  the  head  of  the 
bed  and  the  lady  sat  in  it. 

"I  am  glad,"  she  said,  "your  cough  is  not  so  bad  as 
yesterday  ;  can  you  talk  a  few  minutes  with  me  ? " 

"With  great  pleasure,"  answered  Mrs.  0' Byrne  ;  "the 
doctor  you  had  the  kindness  to  send  me,  madam,  has  given 
me  some  powders  that  have  soothed  the  cough  a  great  deal ; 
and  your  excellent  wine  has  done  me  also  a  deal  of  good. 
Please  believe  we  are  all  very  thankful  for  such  favors, 
which  we  were  far  from  expecting,  after  all  we  have  expe- 
rienced." 

"  You  are  not  with  enemies,  be  convinced  of  it,"  said 
Mrs.  Klrkbride ;  "but  as  I  have  some  curiosity,  I  wish  to 
know  how  you  have  so  soon  treated  me  with  the  ceremony 
I  witnessed,  and  which  certainly  I  did  not  expect." 

"  The  thing  is  very  simple,"  replied  Mrs.  O' Byrne.  "  You 
were  kind  enough  to  send  me  a  doctor  for  the  body,  and  my 
husband  went  out  last  night  for  the  doctor  of  the  soul." 

"  And  if  I  had  not  come,  and  sent  you  Dr.  Dillon  ? " 

"Then  we  would  have  had  only  the  priest,  this  morning, 
and  that  is,  after  all,  the  most  important." 

"But  all  this  preparation  in  your  room,  so  new  to  me  ; 
these  candlesticks  and  the  crucifix,  did  you  bring  them  from 
Ireland  \    You  seem  to  have  brought  nothing  else." 

"These,  madam,  were  brought  by  neighbors,  early  this 
morning." 


A  CHRISTIAN  WOMAN.  41 

''  I  thought  I  was  your  only  neighbor." 

*' We  would  not  be  foolish  enough  to  call  you  so,  madam. 
At  any  rate,  we  have  many  others,  it  seems ;  for  my  hus- 
band, last  night,  after  the  doctor  had  come  and  gone,  had  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  to  keep  them  in  the  other  room  ;  they 
all  wanted  to  come  into  this,  and  the  doctor  had  forbidden 
it." 

"This  is  very  strange  to  me,"  said  the  lady.  '^ Gene- 
rally, other  people  in  your  condition,  who  are  sick  and  poor, 
are  not  visited  by  many  friends." 

"All  the  Irish  are,"  said  Mrs.  O' Byrne.  "We  all,  thank 
God  !  help  each  other." 

"You  are,  indeed,  a  remarkable  people!"  said  Mrs. 
Kirkbride,  and  she  fell  to  musing  and  reflecting. 

At  this  moment  Julia,  who  was  in  the  other  room  during 
the  conversation,  came  in  with  a  large  pitcher  full  of  French 
'bouillon^  which  Rosa  had  just  brought  in  from  the  big 
house  ;  there  was  also  a  small  tray,  with  a  few  teacups  and 
spoons  on  it. 

"  Yery  good,"  said  the  lady  ;  "I  ordered  this  from  the 
cook  on  the  doctor's  prescription.  Let  me  taste  it  first." 
She  had  some  fears  that  the  cook  had  not  strictly  followed 
her  orders,  but  she  said  nothing  about  it.  "  It  is  just  right ; 
take  a  good  cupful  of  it,  Mrs.  0' Byrne ;  it  wiU  do  you  good, 
so  Dr.  Dillon  assured  me." 

Mrs.  O' Byrne  was  overpowered  by  the  extreme  kindness 
of  her  visitor. 

"  Indeed,  madam,"  she  exclaimed,  "I  do  not  know  what 
we  can  do  to  express  our  gratitude.  It  is  so  different  from 
our  previous  experience  ! " 

"First,  drink  a  good  cupful  of  the  broth;  and,  after- 
ward tell  me  what  you  mean  by  that  experience;  it  is  the 
second  time  you  speak  of  it." 

Julia  raised  her  mother  in  the  bed,  propped  her  up  with 
some  pillows,  and  gave  her  the  cup.  Mrs.  0' Byrne  sipped 
the  broth  at  first,  and  then,  with  evident  relish,  drank  the 
whole. 

" I  think  I  can  now  talk  with  you,  madam,"  she  said,  "it 


42  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

is  SO  strengthening !  Indeed,  we  did  not,  in  Ireland,  ex- 
perience anything  of  the  kind.  Yon  see,  madam,  the  rich 
there  do  not  deal  with  poor  people  as  yon  do  here.  They 
never  see  them  ;  but  send  them  their  agents.  These  are 
very  harsh  men,  who  oblige  the  farmers  to  pay  their  rent, 
even  when  they  have  nothing.  It  was  thus  we  were  evicted." 

''What  do  you  mean  by  that  wordT'  said  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride,  who  never  had  heard  it. 

''It  means,  that  they  carry  you,  if  you  are  sick,  out  of 
your  house,  put  you  along  the  ditch  outside,  and  pull 
down  the  house  with  crowbars.  These  men  who  do  this  are 
called  the  crow-brigade.  This  happened  to  us  ;  and,  as  it 
rained  at  the  time,  and  I  was  already  delicate,  I  there  got 
that  cough  which  you  have  heard." 

"But  this  is  incredible,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  "How 
long  had  you  been  in  that  house  and  on  that  farm  ? " 

"I  had  been  there  since  my  marriage,  and  my  husband 
was  born  there ;  and  his  ancestors  before  him  had  lived 
there  for  I  don't  know  how  many  ages." 

"  Were  there  many  other  cases  of  this  kind?" 

"Plenty,  madam,  all  over  the  country." 

"But  you  speak  of  many  ages;  had  the  ancestors  of 
your  husband  always  been  farmers,  and  subject  to  paying 
those  rents?" 

"They  had  always  been  farmers,  but  they  formerly  owned 
the  land,  which  was  taken  from  them  by  the  Protestants. 
I  beg  your  pardon,  madam,  but  so  they  all  say  in  the  old 
country." 

"How  could  that  be  ? "  said  the  lady,  who  began  to  doubt 
the  correctness  of  those  statements.  "If  the  ancestors  of 
your  husband  owned  the  land,  they  must  have  had  papers 
— deeds,  as  we  call  them  ;  what  became  of  those  deeds?  " 

"  This  is  the  right  question,"  said  Mrs.  O' Byrne,  "  and  I 
can  now  put  it  to  you  fairly.  You  see,  madam,  I  am  a 
Fitzgerald,  and  my  husband  is  an  O' Byrne.  I  do  not  know 
myself  the  history  of  those  times  ;  but  Father  O'Leary,  our 
parish  priest,  who  knows  it  well,  explained  it  to  me  one 
day,  so  that  I  could  not  forget  it.    He  said,  that,  if  our 


A  CHBISTIAN  WOMAN.  43 

papers — our  deeds  as  you  say — had  not  been  destroyed  un- 
justly, I  could  prove  my  ancestry  as  far  back  as  twenty  gen- 
erations, because  the  Fitzgeralds  came  with  Strongbow.  As 
to  my  husband,  who  belongs  to  the  old  Irish,  he  could  prove 
it,  for,  I  do  not  know  how  long,  but  more  than  twice  as  long 
as  I  could." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  did  not  know  what  to  think  of  it  all ;  the 
old  woman  must  be  crazy,  she  thought,  or  the  priest  had 
imposed  upon  her,  so  she  only  said:  ''This  is  passing 
strange  ;  but  tell  me,  Mrs.  0' Byrne,  how  do  you  look  on 
those  who,  you  say,  took  the  land  from  your  ancestors, 
and  on  those  who  thrust  you  out  of  house  and  home  ?  Can 
you  forgive  them  ?  " 

"It  is  hard,  madam,"  said  the  old  woman,  who  almost 
began  to  cry,  ' '  yet  we  have  to  forgive  if  we  wish  to  be  for- 
given ;  and  as  you  were  here  a  short  time  ago,  you  heard 
the  priest  tell  me  '  not  even  to  remember  any  injury  that  I 
may  have  received  from  any  one  at  any  time.'  I  will  tell 
you  how  we  can  do  it,  and  it  is  again  from  Father  O'Leary 
that  I  heard  it.  The  one  who  came  this  morning  is  evi- 
dently not  an  Irishman,  although  I  have  the  greatest  respect 
for  him,  and  he  did  a  great  deal  of  good  to  my  soul.  Father 
O'Leary  used  to  say  :  'When  you  think  of  the  past,  don't 
dot  the  ^'s  and  cross  the  f  s  ;  I  mean,'  he  added,  '  don't  put 
proper  names  to  the  remembrances  that  come  back  to  you. 
Don' t  say.  Cursed  be  that  agent,  Nelson,  for  instance,  that 
evicted  me ;  but  you  can  say,  in  general :  Bad  men  have 
ill-treated  me  ;  turn  their  hearts,  O  my  God,  that  they  may 
repent  of  their  misdeeds ! '  This,  madam,  I  can  say  from 
my  heart,  and  I  even  fondly  imagine,  that  if  I  were  rich 
and  they  became  poor,  I  would  relieve  their  miseries  for  the 
Saviour  who  died  for  me." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride' s  eyes  were  becoming  dim,  and  even  wet ; 
so  she  said:  "Dear  Mrs.  0' Byrne,  I  have  made  you  talk 
too  long ;  so  good-by,  till  I  see  you  again." 

Going  home  she  fell  into  a  brown  study.  Her  self-com- 
munings  may  be  summed  up  in  this  way  :  "If  half  of  what 
she  told  me  is  true,  there  is  more  virtue  in  that  shanty  than 


44  LOUISA  KIBEBRIDE. 

I  imagined  there  was  in  the  whole  world.  I  shall  ask  Mr. 
Kirkbride  what  to  believe  of  it."  Then  she  tried  to  banish 
all  those  thoughts  from  her  mind. 

She  spent  the  morning  as  nsnal.  Some  friends  came  to 
see  her,  and  they  spoke  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  world 
of  fashion.  Early  in  the  afternoon  she  went  to  pay  a  few 
visits,  and  while  passing  through  Broadway,  she  thought  of 
her  new  friend,  Julia.  The  poor  giii,  she  said,  has  nothing  ; 
she  must  not  appear  like  a  scullion  when  she  goes  out.  So 
she  bought  her  a  nice  little  bonnet,  one  that  suited  her  con- 
dition. She  had  remarked  that,  whenever  Julia  left  the  hut 
to  go  into  the  lot,  she  put  her  shawl  over  her  head  ;  that 
won't  do,  she  said,  it  must  remain  on  her  shoulders.  Her 
face  is  very  pretty,  she  added,  though  pale  ;  there  must  be 
something  to  set  it  off  better  ;  and  she  purchased  a  pair 
of  earrings,  cheap  ones,  but  tasty  and  nice.  Several  other 
little  things,  which  she  thought  would  please  her,  were  con- 
tributed by  the  milliner  and  the  jeweler.  She  will  pay  me 
that,  she  said,  in  making  my  handkerchiefs,  and  she  laughed 
outright  at  the  thought. 

Before  five  o'clock  Mr.  Kirkbride  came  home,  and  went 
directly  to  his  wife's  room.  A  box  had  arrived  from  Eng- 
land for  her,  that  day ;  he  had  it  passed  through  the 
custom-house  immediately,  as  he  knew  she  was  expecting 
it  somewhat  anxiously.  The  box  would  be  at  their  house 
early  in  the  evening. 

^'  Happy  to  see  you  earlier  than  usual,"  she  said,  ''and  if 
you  are  not  in  too  great  a  hurry,  please  sit  dowm,  as  I  have 
a  few  questions  to  ask  you  which  make  me  more  anxious 
than  the  box." 

Then  she  related  to  him,  briefly,  the  visit  she  had  paid  to 
the  0' Byrnes  in  the  morning,  the  strange  things  she  had 
seen  there,  and  something  more  in  detail  of  the  long  con- 
versation she  had  with  the  old  woman. 

''  Can  it  be  true,"  she  said,  ''  that  the  poor  Irish  we  see  in 
the  streets  were  formerly  owners  of  the  lands  they  now  till  for 
their  masters,  and  that,  if  their  deeds  had  not  been  destroyed, 
they  could  trace  their  ancestry  so  far  back  as  she  stated  ? " 


A   CHRISTIAN  WOMAN.  45 

''  She  did  not  state  enongli,"  answered  the  husband ;  ''  if 
she  is  a  Fitzgerald  she  was  right  for  herself  ;  she  could  go 
up  to  the  twelfth  century  ;  but  as  to  her  husband,  some  of 
their  genealogists  would  have  traced  back  his  ancestry  to 
GoHier  himself,  one  of  the  sons  of  Japhet.  This  is  certainly 
ridiculous ;  but  without  the  least  exaggeration,  it  could 
have  been,  in  that  case,  traced  back  more  than  two  thou- 
sand years." 

*'But  how  were  those  deeds  destroyed?"  said  the  lady. 

''That  is  a  long  story,"  he  replied.  "I  will  point  out  to 
you  some  books  of  my  library  that  will  explain  the  matter 
to  you,  if  you  have  time  to  read  them." 

"But  is  it  true,  also,  that  in  our  very  times,  poor  farmers 
having  such  back  claims  are  'evicted' — I  think  that  is  the 
word — in  the  circumstances  she  mentioned?" 

" It  is  but  too  true,"  replied  the  husband  ;  "I  only  hope 
that  the  next  administration  in  England  shall  change  all 
that." 

"I  am  ashamed  of  my  country,"  exclaimed  good  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  ;  "I  would  never  have  suspected  anything  of  the 
kind!" 

"Do  not  say  so,  Mrs.  Kirkbride,"  said  the  husband,  some- 
what dryly  ;  ' '  you  ought  not  so  ardently  to  espouse  a  cause 
which  is  not  your  own." 

"  But  is  it  not  the  cause  of  humanity  ? "  said  the  lady. 

"You  are  right  there,  my  dear  Louisa,"  he  replied; 
' '  only  I  meant  to  say  that  these  people,  having  certainly 
heavy  grievances  to  complain  of — grievances  that  ought  to 
disappear,  if  possible,  directly — are  not  very  wise  in  their 
projects  and  in  their  aspirations — witness  the  Fenians,  who 
are  now  making  fools  of  themselves — and  we  ought  not  to 
encourage  them  in  their  foolishness." 

"I  assure  you,  my  dear  Ralph,"  replied  the  lady,  "that 
I  have  perceived  no  projects  and  aspirations  of  the  kind  in 
the  people  of  the  shanty  ;  they  even  forgive  the  past  from 
their  hearts,  and  their  priests  require  it  of  them,  as  I  have 
heard  it  with  my  own  ears  this  morning,  without  my 
presence  being  even  suspected  by  the  clergyman.    But  we 


46  LOUISA  EIREBRLDE, 

have  spoken  enongli  of  it ;  I  understand  now  the  whole  of 
it.  I  will  not  encourage  them  in  anything  wrong,  I  assure 
you,  but  I  admire  them."     And  she  pouted  a  little. 

At  dinner  Mr.  Kuivbride  appeared  kinder  and  more  affec- 
tionate even  than  usual ;  for  at  bottom  he  shared  in  all  his 
wife's  feelings  ;  only  he  was  more  cool  and  less  impulsive. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  BEGINNING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

While  this  was  taking  place  between  the  master  and 
mistress  of  the  house,  something  of  a  very  different  nature 
was  going  on  below  staii^s.  We  are  already  slightly  ac- 
quainted with  a  few  of  the  servants  of  this  house.  We 
have  heard  of  Fanny,  and  Yictorina,  and  good  little  Rosa, 
and  ^'honest"  John,  the  footman,  as  he  was  called  by  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  herself.  We  have  now  to  review  the  whole  list 
of  the  men  servants,  as  the  doings  of  this  night  were  to 
be  confined  to  the  men.  They  were  natives  of  different 
countries  :  England,  France,  Switzerland,  and  the  United 
States.  But  in  describing  them  we  must  anticipate  a  mis- 
conception, natural  enough  in  a  thoughtless  reader.  Un- 
reflecting people  might  think  that  these  men  were  true  rep- 
resentatives of  the  various  nations  among  whom  they  were 
born.  It  would  be  a  great  mistake.  There  are  a  great 
many  French  people  very  different  from  our  Mr.  Jean 
Frangois  ;  many  English  having  nothing  at  all  in  common 
with  Bully  George,  or  "honest"  John;  more  than  one 
Yankee  who  would  feel  insulted  to  be  compared  with  mas- 
ter Johnny  Clarke ;  and  not  a  few  Swiss  people,  particu- 
larly, who  would  justly  object  to  be  represented  by  Schwitz. 
Nobody,  therefore,  will,  we  hope,  lay  it  to  our  door  that 
we  have  intended  to  make  of  all  Europeans  and  Americans 
a  set  of  ill-mannered  desperadoes.  The  queer  combination 
of  those  whom  we  have  to  describe  came  from  the  evident 
incompetency  of  good  Mrs.  Kirkbride  in  making  her  list  of 
servants.     She  was  more  good-hearted  than  discriminative ; 

47 


48  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

more  charitable  than  appreciative;  and  the  result  was  ^'a 
motley  collection  of  servants,"  as  she  herself  called  it.  We 
have  to  describe  what  we  find  in  our  way. 

During  dinner  up  stairs,  mysterious  signs  passed  from 
one  servant  to  the  other  whenever  any  one  had  occasion  to 
go  down  to  the  kitchen.  The  cook,  a  Frenchman  by  the 
name  of  Jean  Frangois,  appeared  to  be  the  soul  of  the 
whole  affair,  and  it  was  evident  that  he  would  have  a  great 
deal  to  say  at  the  meeting  that  w^as  going  to  take  place. 
The  object  of  these  mysterious  signs  was  to  appoint  the  time 
and  place  of  this  meeting.  At  ten  o'clock,  when  their  ser- 
vices would  not  be  any  more  required  by  the  family,  there 
being  no  reception  and  no  opera  that  evening,  they  were  all 
to  meet  in  Mr.  Jean  Frangois's  room,  under  the  mansard 
roof,  the  largest  apartment  that  could  be  found  ;  and  they, 
in  due  time,  were  all  faithful  to  the  appointment.  The 
Frenchman  had  been  cook  in  a  Paris  restaurant  when  the 
revolution  of  '48  broke  out,  and  he  had  been  a  constant  fre- 
quenter of  one  of  the  most  violent  clubs  of  the  French  cap- 
ital. He  consequently  knew  all  the  slang  of  the  period, 
and  could  make  an  admirable  speech,  half  English,  half 
French. 

The  butler  of  the  house  was  a  burly  *'Hinglishman,"  six 
feet  two  inches  high,  with  the  face  of  a  true  bull-dog,  and  an 
ample  chin  coming  down  on  the  folds  of  a  thick  white  cra- 
vat.    His  name  was  George — "  Bully  George." 

The  porter,  who  opened  the  front  door  in  visiting  hours, 
was  a  Swiss,  who  had  also,  in  1848,  fought  among  the  ^'  corps 
francs"  against  the  men  of  the  Sunderbund,  and  afterward 
found  a  refuge  in  New  York,  when  his  country  became 
ungrateful  and  would  not  acknowledge  his  sei^ices.  He 
dressed  neatly,  wore  white  gloves  and  white  stockings,  was 
known  under  the  name  of  Schwitz,  and  spoke  a  language 
which  was  neither  English  nor  German,  and  still  less  French. 

We  know  something  of  the  footman,  ^'  honest "  John,  but 
we  have  not  yet  had  occasion  to  say  that  he  was  likewise 
groom ;  and  a  splendid  groom  he  made ;  he  could  ride 
and  lead  horses  admirably,  so  that  few  well-trained  jockeys 


A  BEGINNmQ  OF  HOSTILITIES.  49 

could  do  better.  He  was,  of  course,  English,  well  built, 
quite  different  in  type  from  the  butler,  and  he  spoke  far 
better  English  than  the  rest  of  the  company. 

Finally,  there  was  in  the  house  a  kind  of  grown  young 
man,  lank  and  bony,  with  a  cunning  pair  of  eyes,  and  a 
ready  tongue.  He  had  been  first  an  errand  boy,  and  could 
be  called  now  a  "man  of  all  work,"  employed  whenever 
skill  was  required  rather  than  bodily  strength.  He  was 
called  Clarke,  and  refused  to  answer  to  his  Christian  name, 
Johnny.  Everybody  will  directly  say  that  he  was  what  is 
called  an  English- Yankee. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  certainly  right  to  speak  of  her  "mot- 
ley group  of  servants."  All  these  gentlemen  met  in  the 
appointed  room  at  ten  o'  clock  (Mr.  Schwitz  had  been  kindly 
replaced  at  the  door  by  Miss  Yictorina).  Mr.  Jean  Fran- 
cois was  the  first  to  open  his  mouth.  He  thought  Mr. 
John — "  honest "  John — ought  to  take  the  chair.  The  gen- 
tleman did  not  object  in  the  least,  and  everybody  acqui- 
esced. Thus  Mr.  John  stood  up  in  front  of  the  only  arm- 
chair in  the  room,  and  briefly  stated  the  object  of  the  meet- 
ing. There  had  been  an  Irish  family  living  for  a  long  time  in 
the  shanty,  but  as  it  was  in  it  before  the  mansion  was  built, 
they,  the  servants,  could  not  object,  although  it  was  certainly 
grating  on  their  feelings.  That  family  had  left ;  but  when 
they  thought  they  would  not  be  exposed  to  such  an  annoy- 
ance any  more,  another  was  introduced,  and  they  had  yet 
to  endure  the  hateful  sight.  The  Kirkbride  family  appeared 
to  be  more  infatuated  with  this  new  brood  than  with  the 
former  one,  always  excepting  Mr.  Frederick,  who  had  the 
good  sense  not  to  share  in  the  infatuation.  Was  it  possi- 
ble to  get  rid  of  the  annoyance  ?  What  means  could  be 
taken  to  oblige  those  Irish  people  to  leave  ?  This  was  the 
great  object  which  brought  them  together  ;  any  gentleman 
who  had  some  proposition  to  make  was  free  to  rise  and 
speak,  and,  after  all  had  been  heard,  the  majority  would 
decide. 

It  was  clear,  from  this  speech,  that  the  O' Byrnes  had  a 
truly  formidable  opponent  in  "honest"  John. 
4 


50  LOUISA  EIHEBRIDE. 

Mr.  Jean  Francois  stood  up  directly,  and  spoke  with  a 
great  deal  of  earnestness.  Everybody  saw  that  he  was  full 
of  his  subject,  and  that  he  would  come  to  the  point  with- 
out rambling  right  or  left.  The  fact  is,  he  thought  him- 
self again  au  club  de  la  rue  Mouffetard.  "Gentlemen," 
said  he,  ' '  those  d — d  Irish  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  en- 
cumber the  land  of  liberie  ;  in  all  my  visits  to  the  numerous 
clubs  of  Paris,  I  nevair  could  see  one  of  them.  I  have  un- 
derstood that  they  always  refused  to  Join  the  Bepziblique 
democratlque  et  sociale.  They  are  made  to  eat  their  pota- 
toes en  robe  de  cliambre^  and  know  nothing  of  pommes  de 
terref rites  y 

Here  Mr.  Jean  Frangois  was  interrupted  by  Mr.  Clarke, 
who  said,  in  sufficiently  good  English  :  ''Why  did  you,  sir, 
send  to  the  old  woman  such  good  bouillon^  this  very  morn- 
ing %  I  have  heard  from  Fanny  that  it  was  some  of  the  best 
she  ever  tasted." 

''In  the  cuisine^  sir,"  retorted  Jean  Francois,  "I  am  not 
on  the  cJiamp  de  bataille ;  I  am  there  un  artiste^  and  must 
show  what  I  can  do,  chiefly  when  I  suspect  that  madame  " — 
as  he  could  never  pronounce  Kirlibride^  the  lady  had  no 
other  name  for  him — "would  taste  of  it  first,  and  reprimand 
me  if  it  was  not  well  made.  But,  sacredie^  I  am  for  des 
mesures  mgoureuses  against  those  d — d  Irish ;  we  must, 
the  first  night  the  family  is  out,  go  en  corps ^  erect  une  bar- 
ricade in  front  of  the  chantee,  break  all  the  window^s  with 
paving  stones,  enter  boldly  a  main  armee  in  i\ieforteresse, 
and  send  adrift  all  of  them  along  Fifth  Avenue,  to  go  where 
they  choose,  provided  they  nevair  come  again  pour  nous 
ennuyer^ 

Mr.  Jean  Frangois  here  sat  down,  sure  that  everybody  in 
the  room  would  be  in  favor  of  his  mesures  mgoureuses. 
But  * '  honest "  John,  at  least,  was  not.  He  merely  remarked 
that  if  they  followed  this  plan,  the  first  thing  they  would 
have  to  do  in  consequence,  woukl  be  to  look  for  other 
quarters,  as  the  boss  would  certainly  not  keep  them  in  his 
house,  and  he  would,  besides,  most  certainly,  hand  them 
over  to  the  police,  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  he  would  repair 


A  BEaiNNING  OF  HOSTILITIES.  51 

the  shanty  and  bring  back  the  hated  0'  Byrnes.  This  would 
not  do.     Who  would  be  the  next  speaker  ? 

Mr.  Schwitz  presented  himself  boldly.  Did  we  give  his 
speech  verhatlm,  assuredly  none  of  our  readers  would  get 
at  the  meaning  of  it.  He  was,  however,  sufficiently  well 
understood  by  the  majority  of  his  auditors,  who  were  used 
to  his  gibberish.  He  merely  said  that  having  belonged 
to  the  Swiss/' corps  francs,"  he  was  against  all  Catholics, 
and  he  knew  the  Irish  were  Catholics ;  hence  he .  detested 
them.  In  spite  of  the  objections  raised  against  the  propo- 
sition of  Mr.  Jean  Frangois,  he  was  in  favor  of  something 
of  the  sort,  although  in  a  somewhat  different  way.  He 
thought  they  ought  all  to  go  boldly  during  the  day,  when 
there  were  only  women  in  the  house,  to  the  hated  shanty, 
demolish  it  as  the  "corps  francs"  used  to  raze  the  Swiss 
"chalets"  belonging  to  the  partisans  of  the  Sunderbund 
in  the  country,  and  chase  the  Irish  women  along  Fifth 
Avenue.  If  Monsieur  Kirkbride,  on  his  return,  should  find 
fault  with  it,  at  least  the  shanty  would  not  be  there  any 
more ;  and  they  could  find  situations  as  good  in  many 
houses  of  the  city,  where  they  would  be  gladly  received, 
precisely  on  account  of  the  way  they  would  have  treated 
the  Irish.  Should  the  i^olice  interfere,  the  worst  would  be 
that  they  should  have  to  pay  damages,  and  he  was  quite 
ready  to  give  his  own  share. 

This  plan  was  certainly  more  practicable  than  the  French- 
man's; yet  it  did  not  meet  the  approval  of  the  worthy 
president  of  the  meeting.  In  general,  all  those  plans  of 
European  revolutionists  appear  wild  to  the  more  sober  Eng- 
lishman or  Yankee,  even  when  these  approve  of  the  object. 
Hence  not  only  "honest"  John  said  that  "this  would 
scarcely  be  better  than  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Jean  Fran- 
cois," but  the  two  men  who  had  not  yet  spoken,  "Bully" 
George  and  Mr.  Clarke,  both  shook  their  heads  and  ap- 
peared to  coincide  with  their  worthy  i^resident. 

The  butler,  George,  was  the  first  of  the  remaining  two  to 
stand  up.  A  long  speech  could  not  be  expected  from  him, 
as  he  had  scarcely  ever  in  his  life  used  any  other  than 


52  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

monosyllabic  language.  He  was  great  when  providing  the 
house  with  good  things.  No  man  in  JN'ew  York  could  bet- 
ter select  a  solid  and  juicy  round  of  beef,  half  a  dozen  most 
tender  steaks,  a  brace  of  "perfumed"  snipe  or  woodcock, 
a  well-cured  ham,  or  a  dozen  or  so  of  delicate  quails  or  par- 
tridges. As  to  wines  and  liquors,  there  was  not  his  equal 
in  the  country,  although  he  was  a  better  judge  of  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  brands  than  of  the  French,  which  he  used 
to  say  were  wishy-washy.  But  for  all  these  most  important 
functions  of  his  office,  there  was  no  need  of  many  words,  no 
more  than  for  his  equally  useful  attendance  at  dinner,  when 
he  appeared  in  all  his  dignity,  vnXh.  well-nigh  the  majesty  of 
a  prince  and  the  self-importance  of  a  general  of  militia. 

Our  readers,  therefore,  cannot  expect  a  long  speech  from 
him  ;  but  what  he  said  was  to  the  purpose  and  most  flatter- 
ing to  ''honest"  John.  ''The  men  who  spoke,"  he  said, 
"  did  not  know  this  country.  Mr.  John  knew  it  better ;  let 
him  give  his  plan,  and  he,  for  one,  was  ready  for  it."  Al- 
most monosyllabic  and  quite  sensible. 

"  That  is  the  very  thing,"  said  Mr.  Clarke,  in  conchision. 
*'I  am  sure  that  what  John  shall  concoct  will  be  good  and 
to  the  point,  and  if  he  sprinkles  something  pungent  and  fun- 
ny all  over  the  dish,  I  will  readily  devour  my  share  of  it." 

These  sensible  and  witty  reflections  left  Mr.  John  master 
of  the  situation ;  he  had  the  majority  on  his  side,  and  what- 
ever he  was  pleased  to  dictate  would  find  at  least  several 
pairs  of  hands  ready  to  execute  it. 

Without  giving  his  very  words,  we  will  sketch  his  plan 
somewhat  in  extenso. 

Their  object  was  not  to  apply  the  torch  of  the  incendiary  to 
destroy  property,  to  rob,  plunder,  kill,  or  even  maim  any- 
body in  the  world.  All  these  things  are  punishable  in  this 
country  with  death,  prison,  or  fine.  Their  intention  was 
merely  to  force  those  Irish  people  to  leave  the  place  without 
fail.  The  best  means,  in  his  opinion,  was  to  frighten  them  so 
effectually  that  they  could  not  think  of  remaining ;  and,  as 
he  knew  them  well,  he  was  certain,  that,  if  once  they  be- 
came persuaded  that  the  honor  of  their  girl  was  in  danger, 


A  BEGINNING  OF  HOSTILITIES.  53 

they  would  not  stay  twenty-four  liours  in  the  shanty. 
Therefore,  they  must  spirit  away  the  young  creature  for  a 
short  time,  without  doing  anything  which  might  send  tliem 
to  the  penitentiary,  in  case  they  were  discovered,  and  yet 
so  as  to  impress  her  with  the  wholesome  fear  that,  if  she 
escaped  them  this  time,  she  would  not  another  night. 

It  was  important,  consequently,  that  they  should  not  be 
known,  nor  any  of  them  caught,  even  if  they  failed.  They 
must  surely  do  it  at  night,  next  time  the  family  would  go 
to  the  opera,  and  during  their  absence. 

A  disguise  was  absolutely  necessary  ;  each  man  ought  to 
procure  one.  They  would  leave  the  house  one  by  one, 
as  soon  as  the  family  had  left.  None  of  them  should  go 
through  the  lot  from  the  mansion  to  the  shanty,  so  as  not 
to  leave  their  foot-prints  on  the  snow.  The  attack  ought  to 
be  made  from  Fifth  Avenue,  when  the  bells  in  the  city 
would  strike  ten  ;  a  low  whistle  would  be  heard ;  then  all 
would  begin ;  three  of  them  would  have  previously  come 
down  the  path  and  taken  their  stand  in  front  of  the  outside 
door ;  the  two  others  would  remain  near  the  back  window 
of  the  women's  bedroom.  At  the  signal,  they  would  act 
simultaneously  ;  the  three  men  in  front  would  pry  open  the 
door,  which  was  secured  only  by  an  old  and  rusty  lock ; 
enter,  if  possible,  without  great  noise,  secure  the  two  men 
sleeping  there,  and  tie  their  hands  and  feet  with  small  ropes, 
procured  beforehand.  The  two  other  men,  opening  the  back 
window,  would  enter  the  women's  bedroom,  lay  hold  of  the 
girl  and  carry  her  away,  without  minding  the  screams  of 
the  old  woman,  who  would  be  still  quite  sick.  Then,  if 
they  were  not  pursued,  there  was  an  old,  abandoned  shanty, 
in  a  sunken  lot,  a  few  blocks  away  ;  there  they  would  carry 
her,  dinning  into  her  ears,  meanwhile,  projects  that  would 
not  quite  please  her ;  and,  after  having  kept  her  a  short 
time  a  prisoner,  allow  her  to  escape,  as  if  it  was  through  her 
own  good  luck. 

The  deed  done,  they  should  all  return  secretly  to  the 
house,  and  be  at  their  place  on  the  return  of  the  family,  aU 
of  them  greatly  surprised  at  the  outrage. 


54  LOUISA  KTRKBETDE. 

Should  the  plan  miscarry,  and  one  of  them  be  caught — 
Mr.  John  did  not  think  two  could  be — this  one  should  re- 
fuse absolutely  to  speak,  when  brought  before  the  police, 
and  they  should  all  swear  previously  not  to  betray  each 
other.  The  punishment  could  scarcely  exceed  six  months 
of  jail,  and  ''  honest "  John  had  political  friends  who  would 
see  to  the  shortening  of  it.  He  thought,  even,  that  by  giving 
**bail,"  the  trial  might  be  delayed  and  never  take  place,  as 
people  would  soon  forget  those  "  d — d  Irish." 

It  was  clear,  from  the  whole  plan,  that  none  of  them 
should  have  any  arms ;  neither  pistols,  nor  dirks.  The 
three  men  intended  for  the  front  room  could  carry  short 
clubs,  like  those  of  the  police,  in  case  they  found  the  two 
men  awake. 

Finally,  to  be  more  sure  of  success,  not  one  of  them 
ought  to  open  his  lips  to  any  female  servant  of  the  family, 
although  all  of  them  would  greatly  approve  of  it,  if  they 
knew.  It  was  much  better  that  even  on  the  night  of  the 
affair,  the  female  servants  should  not  have  remarked  the 
absence  of  the  men,  and  be  able  to  swear  at  any  trial  which 
might  take  place,  that  they  had  not  been  aware  of  anybody 
leaving  the  house  that  night. 

At  last  "honest "  John  announced  that  the  first  day  the 
family  would  go  to  the  opera,  all  of  them  should  meet 
again,  directly  after  dinner,  in  Mr.  Jean  Francois's  room, 
to  take  the  required  oath  and  receive  the  last  instruc- 
tions. 

At  this,  Mr.  Jean  Frangois  stood  up,  and  begged  to  be 
heard  before  the  meeting  broke  up  :  "This  plan,"  said  he, 
"seems  to  me  treacherous,  and  scarcely  to  be  accepted  by 
des  liommes  Wlionneur.''''  Here  Mr.  Schwitz  appeared  to 
nod  approvingly.  "The  majority,  however,  consenting,  I 
consider  myself  bound.  But  I  must  remark  that,  on  all 
opera  nights,  I  am  very  busy  preparing  les  pates  fr olds  and 
les  volailles  glacees^  for  the  supper  of  the  family  ;  and  from 
the  arrangements  of  Mr.  John  himself — thus  he  pronounced 
the  name — I  must  remain  at  my  post.  I  give  you  ma  parole 
d^honneur  that  I  will  not  betray  you."     This  last  phrase 


A  BEGINNING  OF  HOSTILITIES.  55 

was  delivered  with  much  emphasis,  and  a  sublime  raising 
of  his  hand  toward  heaven. 

"  Mr.  Jean  Francois,"  said  ''  honest"  John,  ^'  is  perfectly 
right;  we  must  dispense  with  his  services" — and,  in  fact, 
the  worthy  president  was  heartily  glad  of  it ; — "  two  men 
will  do  against  the  two  Irishmen." 

''  I  alone  can  do  for  four  of  them,"  bawled  out  ''Bully" 
George. 

"Yery  well,"  concluded  Mr.  John,  ''let  Mr.  Jean  Fran- 
cois keep  his  word  and  hold  his  tongue,  and  everything  is 
sure  to  succeed."     And  the  meeting  broke  up. 

During  the  few  days  that  followed,  everything  went  on 
as  usual  in  the  Kirkbride  family.  The  gentleman  had 
found  work  for  Mr.  0' Byrne  in  the  Central  Park;  and 
although  the  old  man  was  not  such  a  skillful  gardener  as  to 
command  high  wages,  he  considered  his  position  as  vastly 
improved.  Con  was  too  young  to  be  paid  as  a  workman 
under  the  Park  Commission  ;  but  every  morning  he  went 
to  the  west  side,  where  heavy  works  had  been  going  on  for 
some  time  in  the  neighborhood  of  Eighth  and  IS^inth  Ave- 
nues, and  he  always  found  some  contractor  or  other  who 
wanted  him,  and  gave  him  his  six  shillings  for  the  day. 

Mrs.  0' Byrne  astonished  Dr.  Dillon  by  her  rapid  recov- 
ery. The  threatened  typhoid  fever  had  not  come,  at  least 
in  its  bad  form,  and  a  few  doses  of  quinine,  with  the  excel- 
lent wine  and  broth  from  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  had  sufficed  to 
ward  off  the  danger.  She  was  yet  unable  to  leave  her  bed, 
and  feeble ;  the  physician  nevertheless  was  greatly  sur- 
prised. "  Those  Irish  people,"  he  said  one  day  to  his  lady 
friend,  " have  wonderful  constitutions;  they  recover,  when 
all  others  in  this  country  would  sink.  After  all,  it  is  not  so 
very  astonishing,"  he  added,  "  they  are  altogether  untainted 
with  vice."  And  Mrs.  Kirkbride  opened  wide  her  sweet, 
innocent  eyes. 

*'  I  am  glad,"  she  said,  "doctor,  you  tell  me  so." 

Meanwhile,  a  great  attraction  was  announced  at  the  opera. 
A  new  prima  donna  was  to  appear  in  Norma.  We  could 
not  ascertain  her  name,  as  our  documents  do  not  give  it ; 


56  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

but  it  was  said  that  since  Jenny  Lind,  New  York  had  never 
heard  such  a  ''Casta  Diva"  as  would  be  sung.  Of  course, 
the  Kirkbride  family  prepared  to  go  with  all  their  fashiona- 
ble neighbors.  After  a  lighter  dinner  than  usual,  they  left, 
and  the  servants  could  play  "high  life  below  stairs." 

The  men,  however,  were  intent  on  another  game.  The 
four  worthies  that  we  know  met  this  time  in  "honest" 
John's  room  ;  Mr.  Jean  Frangois  being  very  busy  in  the 
kitchen.  The  honorable  president  reminded  his  three  com- 
panions of  the  details  he  had  laid  down.  George  and 
Schwitz  were  to  deal  with  the  two  Irishmen  in  front,  he  and 
Clarke  would  attend  to  the  women  on  the  other  side  ;  ten 
o'clock,  and  a  low  whistle  w^ould  give  the  precise  signal. 
They  all  left  one  after  another,  and  the  women  servants 
who,  this  time,  had  heard  nothing  of  the  project,  thought 
they  were  somewhere  in  the  house,  or  had  gone  where  they 
usually  went  on  such  occasions.  They  were  merely  ram- 
bling in  the  neighborhood  waiting  for  the  appointed  mo- 
ment. 

There  was  a  bright  moonlight  that  evening;  would  it 
be  in  their  favor  or  not  ?  The  sequel  would  show  ;  even 
"  honest"  John  had  not  thought  of  it. 

The  time  came  at  last,  and  they  were  all  faithfully  near 
the  spot,  no  one  else  being  within  sight,  a  very  favorable 
occurrence.  George  and  Schwitz  crawled  slowly  down  the 
bank  and  stood  ready  at  their  post ;  John  and  Clarke  went 
down  also  on  their  side  noiselessly. 

How  did  matters  stand  in  the  shanty  ?  Three  of  the  in- 
mates were  sound  asleep  ;  but  Con  had  not  yet  closed  his 
eyes,  although  he  had  worked  hard  during  the  day  along 
Eighth  Avenue.  He  had  met  with  some  difficulty  on  the 
part  of  the  contractor,  who  pretended  that  he  had  been  a  long 
time  idle,  and  wanted  to  cut  him  down  to  fifty  cents ;  he  had 
to  bring  witnesses  to  prove  that  all  his  time  had  been  well 
employed,  and  the  quarrel  had  made  him  nervous,  so  that 
he  could  not  sleep.  The  moon  was  shining  brightly  in  his 
room  through  the  solitary  window,  and  he  could  see  every 
object  outside.    He  heard  somebody  walking; — "Bully" 


A  BEaiNNING  OF  HOSTILITIES.  57 

George  had  a  heavy  step.  This  made  him  fretful ;  he  got 
out  of  bed,  looked  slyly  through  the  window,  and  saw  two 
men  with  their  backs  toward  him.  His  suspicions  being 
aroused,  he  went  quickly  to  a  corner  of  the  room  where  he 
found  a  good  black-thorn  shiUelah.  We  forgot  to  say,  pre- 
viously, that  this  simple  weapon  was  among  the  Irish  furni- 
ture which,  on  the  day  of  their  removal,  he  carted  away 
with  Doyle  from  James  Street  to  their  actual  home.  He 
never  thought,  poor  boy,  of  using  it  in  this  country,  where 
he  had  been  told  it  was  unknown  ;  but  he  brought  it  from 
Ireland  as  a  relic  of  the  old  country,  where  he  had  a  great 
reputation  in  his  village  for  using  it  well.  He  clinched  it, 
therefore,  and  went  near  the  door.  All  this  was  done  in 
about  a  quarter  of  a  minute. 

At  this  moment  the  bells  of  the  city  were  striking  ten. 
A  whistle  was  heard,  and  the  door  of  the  shanty  was  burst 
open.  George  was  the  first  to  come  in  club  in  hand ;  but 
he  could  see  nothing  in  the  room,  as  the  moon  he  had  been 
looking  at  had  blinded  him.  Con  saw  him  perfectly  well, 
struck  him  hard  on  the  head,  and  stretched  him  on  the 
ground  at  the  first  blow.  Then  all  was  confusion  in  the 
shanty. 

Schwitz  was  not  abashed  by  the  sight  of  his  apparently 
lifeless  companion.  He  had  seen  worse  scenes  than  this  in  the 
glorious  days  of  the  ''corps  francs,"  and  he  was  inspirited 
by  the  sight  of  the  stove  blazing  in  the  room.  All  along  he 
had  intended  to  carry  on  the  warfare  in  a  way  at  variance 
with  "honest"  John's  peaceful  programme,  and  the  sight  of 
fire  put  his  mind  in  a  blaze  ;  "he  would  knock  down  the 
stove  and  burn  the  shanty  ! "  He  bounced  into  the  room, 
and  tried  to  get  at  the  red-hot  cast-iron  machine.  Old  Mr. 
0' Byrne,  who  had  jumped  out  of  bed,  seized  upon  a  wooden 
chair,  and  met  him  on  his  way.  Schwitz  gave  him  a  blow 
of  his  club  on  the  arm — he  could  not  reach  the  head— and 
incapacitated  him  for  the  moment.  Con,  who  was  really 
frightened  at  the  sight  of  George  apparently  dead,  could 
not  use  his  shillelah  with  the  same  energy,  and  Schwitz, 
who  was  well  up  in  sword  exercise,  could  parry  his  blows. 


58  LOUISA  KIBKBBIDE. 

Mean  while  lie  was  getting  nearer  the  stove,  and  Con  finally 
perceived  liis  intention.  Then  it  was  almost  a  life-and- 
death  struggle.  The  two  yonng  men  were  equally  strong 
and  active.  Schwitz  was  nnscrupulons,  Con  animated  by 
the  love  of  family  and  friends  ;  both  wxre  sure  to  succeed. 
At  this  moment  the  father  came  to  the  rescue  of  his  son ; 
both  holding  the  chair  in  front  at  arm's  length — a  sure 
defense,  as  the  enemy's  club  could  not  reach  them — they 
pushed  him  back  toward  the  door,  whither  Schwitz  was 
finally  driven.  Afraid  of  stumbling  over  the  prostrate  body 
of  George,  he  turned  round.  This  was  Con's  opportunity. 
Grasping  his  shillelah  \vith  both  hands,  he  applied  it  to  the 
enemy's  rear,  where  he  could  break  no  bones,  wdth  such 
force,  that  Schwitz  fairly  screeched,  bounded  out  of  the 
room,  and  ran  for  dear  life,  disappearing  in  Madison  Avenue. 
Meanwhile  John  and  Clarke  had  not  been  idle.  At  the 
very  instant  that  the  door  was  pushed  open  in  front,  the 
first  of  the  two  villains,  raising  the  lower  sash  of  the 
women's  bedroom,  let  Clarke  in  noiselessly,  and  directed 
him  first  to  bar  the  inner  door  with  a  strong  stick  he  had 
procured.  The  young  man  did  it  in  a  moment,  so  that  no- 
body could  come  from  inside  to  the  rescue  of  the  w^omen ; 
then  taking  a  cold  chisel  and  a  small  hammer  he  had  in  his 
pocket,  he  unfastened  both  sashes  of  the  window  in  a  trice, 
and  John  jumped  in.  This  woke  up  Mrs.  0' Byrne  and 
Julia,  who,  suddenly  aware  that  there  were  strangers  in  the 
room,  clasped  each  other  in  their  arms,  and  began  to  cry 
aloud:  "Who's  there?" 

''Friends,"  said  John  ;  "we  will  not  hurt  you." 
The  two  scamps  w^anted  to  carry  off  Julia  and  leave  the 
old  woman  ;  but  they  could  not  take  one  without  the  other, 
and  both  would  have  been  too  heavy  a  load.  Tliis  was  a 
real  difficulty  which  detained  them  some  time,  as  they  acted 
first  without  discrimination,  and  were  almost  in  the  dark, 
coming,  as  they  did,  from  the  bright  moonlight.  The  poor 
women,  at  last  aware  of  their  intention,  screamed  aloud, 
and  called  Patrick  and  Con,  who  were  busy  enough  in  the' 
other  room.     The  delay  thus  occasioned  would  have  lasted 


A  BEGINNING  OF  HOSTILITIES.  59 

at  least  as  long  as  tlie  struggle  we  have  described,  if  Jolin 
had  not  seen  the  importance  of  more  coolness  and  order  in 
the  operation,  and  said  to  his  friend  :  "Unfasten  the  arms 
of  the  old  hag  ;  I  will  manage  the  girl." 

"Why  not  invert  the    arrangement?"    remarked  Mr. 
Clarke,  who  wished  to  have/i^T^,  and  so  far  had  found  none. 

"Very  well,"  replied  John  ;  and  not  minding  the  screams 
of  the  poor  creatures,  they  proceeded  more  coolly  in  their 
villainy,  and  succeeded  in  separating  Julia  from  her  mother. 
Just  then  the  girl  swooned  away,  and  they  met  with  no 
more  resistance  on  her  part.  One  of  the  scoundrels  took 
her  under  the  arms,  the  other  by  the  feet,  and  thus  they 
dragged  her  through  the  window.  Mrs.  0' Byrne,  in  a  per- 
fect frenzy  of  grief,  jumped  from  the  bed,  and,  as  Clarke 
was  the  last  to  go  out,  she  caught  him  by  the  legs  ;  but  he, 
active  and  muscular  as  a  young  Yankee  of  eighteen,  dis- 
engaged one  leg,  gave  her  a  brutal  kick,  and  left  her  on  the 
floor  of  the  bedroom.  Then  they  could  carry  their  burden 
along  Fifth  Avenue,  toward  the  north.  Strange  to  say, 
nobody  appeared  near  the  shanty  during  all  this  abomina- 
ble outrage,  neither  policeman  nor  citizen  ;  a  circumstance 
which  emboldened  the  two  scoundrels  not  a  little. 

They  were  already  a  block  or  two  on  their  way,  when  the 
scampering  off  of  Schwitz  on  the  other  side  left  the  shanty 
in  the  gloom  of  silence  and  horror.  Mrs.  0' Byrne  could  yet 
cry  out  for  Patrick  and  Con,  who  both  ran  at  once  to  her 
door ;  but  they  found  they  could  not  come  in  without 
breaking  it  down.  Con  preferred  to  run  round  to  the  win- 
dow, jump  into  the  bedroom,  unbar  the  door,  and  with  his 
father  carry  the  old  lady  to  the  empty  bed  in  the  outer 
room.  ' '  Father, ' '  cried  the  young  Irishman,  ' '  I  must  go  for 
Julia,  and  I  promise  you  I  shall  bring  her  back  if  I  have  to 
kill  the  villains."  He  had  first  to  dress,  then  to  look  at  the 
supposed  corpse  of  George,  and  to  his  relief,  he  found  out 
that  he  certainly  breathed,  and  that  his  skull  had  not  been 
broken.  In  fumbling  around  the  prostrate  bully, he  saw  some 
rope  peeping  out  of  one  of  his  pockets  !  We  know  what  that 
was  intended  for.    ' '  Father, ' '  Con  cried  out,  ' '  the  man  lives, 


60  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

and  may  soon  wake  np  ;  while  I  go  for  sister,  tie  the  fellow 
mth  these  ropes,  and  wait  with  him  until  I  come  back." 
Then  poor  Mr.  O'Byrne,  who  had  hitherto  appeared  terror- 
stricken  on  account  of  his  wife  and  daughter,  revived.  He 
knew  how  to  make  a  strong  knot,  as  he  had  often  hung  up 
his  hogs  previous  to  cutting  them  down  and  putting  them  in 
the  brine.  So  Mr.  George  was  soon  tightly  bound,  hand  and 
foot. 

Con  had  already  put  on  the  most  necessary  apparel,  and 
was  soon  on  the  causeway  of  Fifth  Avenue.  In  that  place 
it  was  then  merely  a  causeway.  The  two  villains  carrying 
Julia  were  still  quite  visible  in  the  strong  moonlight ;  and 
near  the  shanty  Con  met  with  two  policemen,  who,  stationed 
just  at  the  entrance  of  the  Park,  several  blocks  south  of  the 
place,  had  lazily  listened  to  the  various  screams  and  noises 
heard  in  that  quarter,  and  finally  started  in  the  proper 
direction.  ^'  Come  up  with  me,  my  men,"  said  Con,  ''to  the 
rescue  of  my  sister !  Come  and  help  me  !  "  The  men  were 
really  well-intentioned,  although  at  first  they  appeared  half 
asleep,  and  they  at  once  started  on  a  run  behind  the  young 
man  ;  one  of  them  was  an  Irish  father  of  a  family. 

Con  was  a  great  racer  ;  and  in  the  extreme  excitement 
which  nerved  him,  the  fatigue  of  the  previous  day  and  of 
the  evening  could  not  be  felt.  He  immediately  distanced 
his  two  companions,  and  it  was  evident  from  the  start  that 
those  he  pursued  would  soon  be  overtaken.  Nothing  was 
seen  on  the  road  but  his  lithe  body,  aud  the  black-thorn 
weapon  he  flourished.  At  least  the  ravishers  of  Julia  could 
not  see  anything  else.  The  two  scamps  had  already  re- 
marked him,  and  the  poor  girl  being  very  heavy  in  her 
swoon,  they  felt  they  could  not  escape  their  pursuer.  John 
was  speaking  of  throwing  the  girl  on  the  side  of  the  road 
and  escaping.     Clarke  at  first  opposed  it. 

* '  Stay  here  with  her, ' '  he  said  ;  ' '  I  will  go  and  meet  him." 

''Don't  you  see  that  infernal  stick?  And  you  have 
nothing,"  replied  his  companion. 

"  I  will  make  it  fly  from  his  grasp,"  said  the  other,  "and 
grapple  with  the  fellow." 


A  BEGINNma  OF  HOSTILITIES.  61 

He  was  evidently  intent  on  having  Ms  fun.  At  this  mo- 
ment they  both  stopped,  and  John,  more  keen-sighted  than 
his  friend,  perceived  the  policemen  running  far  behind  the 
young  Irishman.  "You  will  not  have  done  with  Paddy," 
he  remarked,  ''before  the  police  are  on  you  with  their 
clubs;  I  tell  you  we  must  run."  Clarke  looked,  and  was 
convinced.  So  the  two  ruffians  threw  the  girl  roughly  on 
the  snow  and  fled,  leaving  Fifth  Avenue  to  their  left,  and 
disappearing  behind  heaps  of  rubbish,  old  shanties,  and 
ruined  walls  of  blackened  frame  houses. 

Con  soon  reached  his  sister,  and  stretching  himself  on  the 
ground,  raised  her  gently  on  his  lap,  and  began  softly  to 
chafe  her  face  and  hands,  which  were  cold  and  benumbed. 
This  at  once  revived  her ;  she  opened  her  eyes,  and  seeing 
herself  in  the  arms  of  such  a  friend,  melted  away  and  burst 
into  tears. 

''  Do  not  fear,  dear  Julia,"  said  her  brother ;  ''  I  am  with 
you,  and  I  will  not  let  you  go." 

''  Where  are  they  ?  "  lowly  murmured  the  girl. 

''You  mean  those  two  scoundrels?"  he  replied.  "They 
have  fled  at  the  sight  of  my  shillelah ;  it  will  be  of  service 
yet,  that  little  stick." 

At  this  moment  the  policemen  arrived,  and  on  seeing  the 
young  woman,  appeared  extremely  interested  in  her  case. 
The  youngest  said  directly,  "  I  must  run  after  the  fellows  ; 
I  know  what  direction  they  took.  You,  Pat  Ahern,  stay 
with  the  young  people ;  they  will  want  you,  and  you  must 
go  to  the  house  right  away  ;  Til  soon  be  with  you,"  and  he 
disappeared,  running  to  the  east  of  the  avenue. 

Julia  had  fully  come  to  herself,  but  she  could  not  walk 
yet,  frightened  as  she  had  been.  The  old  policeman,  Ahern, 
took  off  his  overcoat,  twisted  it,  and  giving  one  side  of  it  to 
Con,  he  caught  the  other,  and  Julia,  seated  between  them, 
was  carried  gently  toward  the  shanty,  where  they  finally 
arrived. 

They  found  the  rope-bound  ruffian  awake  and  in  his 
senses,  but  he  had  refused  to  say  a  word  to  Mr.  O' Byrne, 
confining  all  his  exertions  to  a  violent  wriggling  on  the 


62  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE, 

ground,  in  the  hope  of  extricating  his  hands  or  feet.  He 
continued  doggedly  silent  when  Ahern  spoke  to  him,  and 
it  was  evidently  useless  to  put  him  questions.  All  present 
were  perfectly  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  he  belonged  to  the 
mansion,  and  was  a  servant  of  Mr.  Kirkbride's.  The  motive 
of  the  outrage  was,  consequently,  unknown,  and  the  poor 
people  indulged  in  the  wildest  conjectures  on  the  subject. 

In  course  of  time  the  young  policeman  arrived  alone  ;  he 
had  not  been  able  to  have  a  sight  of  the  fleeing  birds,  and 
none  of  those  he  met  could  enlighten  him  on  the  subject. 
Mr.  John  and  Mr.  Clarke  were,  in  fact,  too  cunning  for  him. 
The  policemen  had,  therefore,  nothing  more  to  do  than  to 
untie  "Bully"  George's  legs,  place  him  between  them,  and 
walk  him  to  the  nearest  police  station. 

Of  Mrs.  O' Byrne  we  have  only  to  say  that  the  struggle 
had  nearly  exhausted  her ;  her  cough  had  come  back,  and 
she  looked  the  picture  of  death,  as  long  as  her  daughter 
had  not  returned.  When  the  lost  one  arrived  and  threw 
herself  in  her  arms,  her  copious  tears  in  embracing  Julia 
relieved  her  heart  and  banished  all  anxiety  from  her  mind. 

But  what  of  the  inmates  of  the  mansion  during  all  those 
sad  occurrences  %  They  could  not  hear  much  of  what  was 
passing  at  the  shanty,  on  account  of  the  distance — a  full 
block — and  because  of  the  ominous  silence  preserved  during 
the  longest  part  of  the  struggle.  Some  very  high  words, 
however,  and  chiefly  the  wild  screech  of  Mr.  Schwitz,  had 
penetrated  through  the  closed  windows  and  curtains,  and 
had  reached  their  ears.  Miss  Victorina,  always  on  the 
lookout,  was  startled  by  the  scream  of  the  porter,  and, 
from  the  corner  of  the  room  where  she  was,  she  rushed  to 
the  window  fronting  on  the  empty  lot,  drew  aside  the  cur- 
tain, and  turned  her  eyes  toward  the  shanty ;  but  Schwitz 
had  already  run  across  in  front  of  the  window,  and  it  was 
only  after  turning  her  head  around  that  she  could  see  for 
an  instant  a  human  form  running  wildly  on  Madison 
Avenue  and  disappearing  instanter  behind  the  next  house. 

She  flew  down  to  the  kitchen,  whither  all  the  other  girls 
of  the  establishment  appeared  to  be  running.     They  were 


A  BEGINNINQ  OF  HOSTILITIES.  63 

all  going  to  see  Mr.  Jean  Frangois,  and  learn  from  Mm  if 
he  knew  what  was  the  matter.  ^'How  can  I?"  he  said 
with  dignity,  "mon  souper  is  not  j^t  pret.  Go  and  look 
yourselves."  The  women,  however,  were  afraid,  and  did 
not  dare  to  leave  the  room,  where  the  cook  appeared  ex- 
tremely busy,  went  from  one  side  to  the  other  for  his  spices 
and  condiments,  and,  meeting  the  girls  in  his  way,  pushed 
them  rudely  aside,  as  if  he  had  altogether  forgotten  his 
usual  gallantry. 

This  gave  time  and  opportunity  to  the  scamps  to  return 
slyly  and  unperceived.  The  first  was  Schwitz  himself,  who 
took  his  usual  position  in  a  small  room  near  the  door, 
standing  and  supporting  his  person  on  a  chan*,  afraid  of 
even  attempting  to  sit  down  ;  and  a  few  instants  after  the 
bell  rang,  and  Miss  Victorina,  running  up  to  open  it,  was 
greatly  surprised  to  see  Mr.  Schwitz  at  his  post,  and  asked 
him  wildly  where  he  had  been,  and  if  he  knew  what  had 
happened  outside.  "  Where  have  I  been  ? "  he  said  ;  ''what 
has  happened  ?  I  have  not  left  this  room,  where,  I  confess, 
I  fell  asleep."  At  least,  this  was  the  meaning  of  his  gib- 
berish ;  and  Miss  Victorina  went  to  repeat  the  strange  story 
in  the  kitchen.  "Honest"  John  himself  came  down  a  few 
minutes  later  from  his  room,  where,  of  course,  he  had  also 
enjoyed  a  pleasant  and  refreshing  sleep  of  more  than  half 
an  hour — so  deep,  in  fact,  that  when  he  was  asked  by  the 
girls  if  he  had  heard  the  screech,  he  could  say  in  all  con- 
science that  he  had  not,  as  we  know  that  he  was,  at  the 
very  time,  several  blocks  north  of  the  place.  In  due  time 
Mr.  Clarke  came  lazily  down,  yawning  and  rubbing  his 
eyes,  and  trying  to  have  his  fun  vdth  Miss  Victorina,  or 
Miss  Fanny,  as  we  are  aware  that  he  could  not  have  it 
with  another. 

However,  the  game  was  well  played,  and  had  it  not  been 
for  the  real  and  ominous  absence  of  George,  everything 
would  have  been  well  enough,  all  things  considered.  Quiet 
was  thus  becoming  restored  all  around,  when  poor  little 
Rosa  came  in,  all  in  a  flutter.  She  had  dared  to  go  out  in 
the  lot ;  she  had  seen  that  everything  was  not  right  in  the 


64  LOUISA  KIBEBRIDE. 

shanty,  and  after  several  cantious  advances  and  stops,  had 
finally  knocked  at  the  door,  and  found  all  the  people  awake, 
and  they  had  told  her,  in  a  few  words,  the  substance  of  all 
that  had  happened.  This,  of  course,  was  terrible  news  for 
all  the  domestics  of  the  mansion.  No  one  could  imagine 
that,  being  so  near,  they  could  have  all  been  so  ignorant  of 
such  a  daring  outrage.  Mr.  John  chiefly  was  deeply  con- 
cerned for  the  misfortunes  of  the  Irish  family.  ''After 
all,"  he  said,  "  the  accident  of  theb  bn"th  in  Ireland  is  not 
a  crime  on  their  part ;  they  could  not  help  it.  Humanity 
required  that  some  one  of  the  house  should  go  to  ask  if 
anything  could  be  done  for  them.  He  would  himself  volun- 
teer, and  Mr.  Kirkbride,  on  coming  back,  would  but  approve 
of  such  an  act."  Thus  he  went ;  it  was  a  bold  step  to  a 
certain  extent,  as  Con  might  recognize  in  him  one  of  the 
two  scoundrels  who  had  tried  to  carry  away  his  sister. 
But  Mr.  John  banished  away  this  fear ;  he  had  been  seen 
at  too  great  a  distance,  and  we  know  he  was  then  under  a 
complete  disguise.  On  reaching  the  shanty  he  expressed 
his  surprise  that  none  of  its  inmates  had  gone  to  the 
house  during  the  fray  to  call  for  help  ;  all  the  servants  of 
the  family  would  have  rushed  to  their  aid.  If  anything 
could  be  done  for  them,  they  had  only  to  speak  and  they 
would  be  served.  Mr.  O' Byrne,  who  recognized  in  the  per- 
son Mr.  Kirkbride' s  footman,  thanked  him  sincerely.  "No 
extensive  damage  had  been  done  to  the  cottage,"  he  said; 
"they  could  very  well  repair  it  themselves  the  following 
morning  ;  they  needed  nothing  personally,  and  would  all 
spend  the  night  together  in  the  front  room." 

There  is  no  need  of  saying  that  the  family,  on  returning, 
just  at  midnight,  were  as  much  pained  as  surprised  at  the 
news  they  received.  It  was  too  late  for  any  of  them  to  go 
to  the  shanty,  and  "honest"  John  did  not  fail  to  report  the 
very  reassuring  wordg  of  Mr.  0' Byrne  which  he  heard 
when  he  went  on  his  "errand  of  mercy."  Mrs.  Kirkbride, 
however,  could  not  be  satisfied  with  this ;  she  took  Rosa 
apart,  and  told  her  to  go  very  early  the  following  day  to  the 
cottage,  and  tell  the  young  Irishman  to  call  on  Dr.  Dillon 


A  BEGINNTNG  OF  HOSTILITIES.  65 

between  eight  and  nine,  and  request  Mm  to  visit  the  old 
lady  immediately,  and  report  the  state  of  the  case  to  Mr. 
Kirkbride,  if  she  herself  could  not  be  seen.  Rosa  promised 
to  do  it,  and  all  retired. 

The  absence  of  George  had  been  remarked  at  supper,  and 
Mr.  John  had  been  ordered  to  replace  him  for  the  evening. 

This  gentleman,  during  the  night,  was  far  from  easy.  The 
following  morning  the  real  state  of  George's  case  would  be 
known.  Would  he  hold  his  tongue,  as  he  had  promised? 
This  was  rather  an  embarrassing  question,  and  something 
must  be  done  to  prevent  a  wrong  turn  in  the  whole  busi- 
ness. After  discussing  in  his  mind,  and  rejecting  several 
plans,  he  finally  adopted  the  one  which  appeared  to  him 
the  best,  and  could  close  his  eyes  in  sleep  for  a  couple  of 
hours. 

Exactly  at  nine  o'clock,  as  he  had  been  directed  to  do  the 
previous  night,  he  was  in  his  master' s  room,  helping  him  to 
dress. 

''A^Tiat  is  your  opinion,  John,"  said  the  gentleman, 
''  about  last  night's  outrage  ?    Who  could  have  done  it  ? " 

''Really,  sir,  it  is  as  much  of  a  puzzle  to  me  as  to  you," 
answered  the  honest  servant ;  ''and  what  is  more  astonish- 
ing is  what  I  have  just  learned,  that  George  was  with  the 
outsiders  who  broke  into  the  shanty  and  attacked  the  peo- 
ple there." 

"  George  !  "  exclaimed  Mr.  Kirkbride. 

"  Yes,"  said  John  ;  "he  was  caught  by  the  police,  and  is 
in  the  station  house  preparatory  to  his  examination  and 
commitment  by  the  magistrate  this  morning." 

"Had  you  an  idea  before  that  he  would  do  such  a 
thing?" 

"Not  in  the  least,  sir ;  he  knew,  I  suppose,  I  am  not  the 
person  to  approve  of  such  a  foolish  business." 

"How  did  you  learn  that  he  was  in  the  hands  of  the  po- 
lice?" 

"  From  himself  ;  I  just  received,  five  minutes  ago,  a  slip 
of  paper  asking  me  to  go  bail  for  him  until  his  trial." 

"  You  will  do  no  such  thing,  I  suppose,  John  ?" 
5 


66  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

''I  will  put  it  to  you,  sir,  in  black  and  white,  and  you 
will  tell  me  what  I  can  do  :  We  are  from  the  same  country, 
nay,  more,  the  same  county,  in  England  ;  he  has  done  me 
some  very  good  turns  in  my  life  ;  one  of  them  was  that  he 
introduced  me  to  your  notice,  sir,  if  you  remember,  and  it 
is  owing  to  him  I  am  here.  The  foolish  fellow,  I  suppose, 
has  been  carried  away  by  his  antipathy  against  the  Irish, 
which  is  great  indeed,  and  to  my  knowledge  he  has  good 
reasons  for  it.  I  do  not  believe  that  he  intended  to  rob  or 
kill,  but  only  to  vent  his  temper.  I  am  sure  that  he  will 
stand  his  trial,  and  I  risk  nothing.  Must  he  remain  in  jail 
several  months  on  suspicion  ?  For  he  may  not  be  guilty, 
after  all.  I  think,  taking  all  in  all,  it  would  be  shameful  in 
me  to  refuse  him — after  all  he  has  done  for  me — a  kind  of 
formality  which  is  refused  by  nobody  in  our  days,  even  for 
greater  criminals." 

''Well,  John,"  said  Mr.  Kirkbride,  ''you  may  do  what 
you  please  ;  the  reasons  you  give  me  may  convince  you  ; 
but  if  he  is  let  out  on  bail,  he  shall  not  come  here  on  leaving 
the  magistrate's  court.  You  will  have  the  goodness  to  pack 
up  all  his  things  as  soon  as  I  am  dressed,  and  send  him  word 
that  he  will  find  the  amount  of  his  wages  in  the  hands  of 
my  attorney,  Mr.  N.  Wilson,  near  the  Exchange,  in  Wall 
Street ;  and  you  will  please  be  my  butler  until  I  have  found 
somebody  to  take  his  place." 

Mr.  John  had  gained  a  great  point,  a  very  great  point. 

Dr.  Dillon,  about  the  same  time  that  this  conversation 
took  place,  was  in  the  shanty,  attending  to  Mrs.  0' Byrne, 
and  receiving  from  the  poor  family  all  the  details  of  the 
outrage.  He  then  went  to  the  house,  and  found  at  the  door 
Miss  Victorina,  who  cried  out  to  him  :  "Welcome,  doctor  ; 
our  porter  is  very  sick,  and  wants  to  see  you  directl3^" 
The  fact  was  Mr.  Schwitz  had  passed  such  a  night  of  tor- 
ment that  he  thought  he  would  surely  die  ;  the  pain  went 
to  the  very  marrow  of  his  bones.  The  doctor  had  to  make 
an  examination  ;  he  thought  that  really  the  os  coccygis 
might  have  been  exfoliated. 


A  BEGINNma  OF  HOSTILITIES.  67 

'^How  did  you  receive  this  ?"  he  said. 

'*I  fell  off  last  night  fi-om  the  stoop,  and  my  back 
touched  something  very  hard  on  the  ground,"  answered 
the  veracious  porter. 

''  Humph  I  "  ejaculated  Dr.  Dillon,  "  I  must  see  to  this," 
and  he  left  the  patient's  bedroom. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride,  besides  the  late  hour  at  which  she  re- 
tired the  previous  night,  had  scarcely  been  able  to  close  her 
eyes ;  the  doctor  could  not  see  her,  and  called  on  her  hus- 
band. 

''  There  is,"  said  he,  ''a very  strange  case  in  your  house," 
an(^  he  related  the  visit  he  had  just  paid  to  Sch^atz ;  he 
could  not  believe  the  story  of  his  fall,  the  injury  could  not 
have  been  so  great ;  he  had  a  strong  suspicion  that  he  had 
received  the  blow  administered  by  Con's  shillelah  (for  the 
latter  had  just  related  to  him  the  whole  story),  and  he  com- 
municated his  suspicion  to  Mr.  Ku^kbride. 

''We  will  know  the  truth,  directly,"  exclaimed  this  gen- 
tleman, and  he  sent  for  Con,  who  came  in  a  moment,  and 
was  ushered  into  the  sufferer's  room.  As  soon  as  he  saw 
Schwitz,  "Sure  enough,"  he  said,  ''this  is  the  man  who 
tried  to  bum  our  shanty  by  knocking  down  the  stove  !  " 

"Do  you  confess  it  ?  "  said  Mr.  Kirkbride  to  the  ruffian, 
who,  without  giving  any  answer,  merely  covered  his  face 
^\\t\\  the  bedclothes.     The  truth  was  plain  enough. 

Mr.  Kirkbride' s  mind  was  soon  made  up.  He  begged  of 
the  physician  to  allay  the  man's  actual  pain  by  the  usual 
anaesthetics,  and  directly  ordered  a  carriage  to  convey  him 
with  his  effects  to  Bellevue  Hospital,  after  he  had  paid  him 
his  wages. 

"IN'ow,  Con,"  he  said,  "you  have  something  to  do.  Go 
with  your  father  to  the  nearest  police  station,  or  rather, 
magistrate,  and  lodge  your  complaint  against  both  fellows. 
The  district  attorney  will  have  to  take  cognizance  of  the 
affair,  and  we  will  know  the  whole  truth." 

The  physician,  meanwhile,  had  written  a  short  note  to  the 
lady  of  the  house,  to  assure  her  that  nothing  extremely  bad 
would  follow  for  Mrs.  0' Byrne  from  the  night's  doings; 


68  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

her  full  recovery  would  only  be  delayed  a  week  or  so  ;  and 
he  left. 

Mr.  O'  Byrne  and  his  son  followed  the  advice  they  had 
received,  and  went  directly  to  the  station  house,  where,  un- 
der the  guidance  of  Mr.  Ahern,  they  found  the  proper  ma- 
gistrate, lodged  their  complaint  in  due  form,  and  the  case 
entered  into  its  first  legal  stage. 

John  went  later,  at  the  time  appointed  for  the  court  to 
open,  was  present  at  the  first  proceedings,  and,  at  the  pro- 
per moment  stepped  in,  swore  that  he  j^ossessed  real  estate 
to  the  value  of  at  least  twenty  thousand  dollars — this  was 
true,  and  we  may  learn  later  how  he  came  into  possession 
of  such  a  handsome  property — went  bail  in  five  thousand 
dollars  surety  for  George,  and  left  the  court  in  the  com- 
pany of  his  friend,  who  was  soon  in  a  lodging-house  where 
he  had  not  been  unknown  in  former  times.  God  only  knew 
when  the  trial  would  come  on  ;  the  sickness  of  Mr.  Schwitz, 
and  several  other  reasons,  might  delay  the  interesting  cere- 
mony for  a  good  many  months.  As  to  the  bully's  head, 
after  the  first  hour  of  insensibility,  nothing  remained  of  the 
''accident"  except  an  occasional  slight  headache.  The 
skulls  of  your  Englishmen  of  the  true  Scandinavian  type 
are  of  such  compact  thickness,  that  nothing  but  a  sledge- 
hammer can  break  them. 

On  the  same  day  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  a  little 
chat  about  the  servants.  George  and  Schwitz  were  dis- 
charged ;  this  was  thought  to  be  sufiicient  among  the  men 
for  the  present.  Mrs.  Kirkbride  remembered  the  conver- 
sation between  the  two  girls  on  the  arrival  of  the  O' Byrne 
family.  Fanny  had  been  the  most  shameless  of  the  two ; 
she  was  immediately  replaced  by  a  simple  but  good  Irish 
girl  recommended  by  the  Dolans,  with  the  usual  name  of 
Bridget.  Yictorina  would  be  let  off  this  time  with  a  sharp 
reprimand.  The  gentleman  took  upon  himself  to  replace 
the  butler  and  porter.  This  very  day,  during  business 
hours,  he  took  some  information  on  the  subject  of  several 
applicants  who  had  come  to  him  lately  with  good  recom- 
mendations from  friends.    He  selected  for  butler  a  North-of- 


A  BEGINNING  OF  HOSTILITIES.  .  69 

Ireland  man,  not  a  Catholic,  but  a  great  anti- Orangeman, 
by  the  name  of  Andrew  McTryst ;  and  his  new  porter  was 
to  be  a  sprightly  Frenchman,  called  Jacques  Duret,  a  Catho- 
lic of  the  usual  mild  type  in  that  class  of  people,  but  a 
genial  fellow,  who  was  sure  to  be  alternately  a  bosom  friend 
of  Mr.  Jean  Frangois,  and  then  a  most  bitter  enemy  of  the 
same  artist  en  cuisine.  In  the  new  combination  of  the 
''domesticity"  of  the  house,  there  was  certainly  a  great 
change,  and  "honest"  John  would  have  to  go  out  of  the 
Kirkbride  mansion  to  find  a  suflacient  number  of  fanatic 
haters  of  the  Irish. 

^his  set  him  on  reflecting — a  mental  occupation  to  which 
he  had  been  much  addicted  all  his  life,  unfortunately,  not 
always  for  good  purposes.  His  hatred  of  the  C  Byrnes  was 
more  intense  than  ever ;  to  his  old  grudges  was  added  the 
bitterness  of  the  last  failure  ;  for  it  was  a  complete  failure. 
He  must,  of  course,  revenge  himself,  and  that  before  long. 
He  thought  directly  of  George,  who  was  free,  and  who 
would  be  without  occupation  for  some  time  at  least.  He 
thought,  also,  of  Mr.  Frederick,  into  whose  good  graces  he 
had  not,  up  to  this  time,  sufficiently  endeavored  to  make 
his  way.  He  had  still  in  his  hands  bright  elements  of 
future  success,  and  he  instantly  set  to  work  on  the  noble 
task  of  destroying,  root  and  branch,  a  whole  family  of 
Paddies. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

THE  PLOT  THICKENS. 

Theee  days  after  the  events  last  related,  Mr.  John  was 
fully  prepared  to  begin ;  and  it  was  with  George  that  his 
ingenuity  was  to  be  first  employed.  He  easily  found  some 
pretext  to  be  absent  from  the  house  a  couple  of  hours 
during  the  day  ;  and  he  was  soon  seated  with  his  friend,  in 
the  back  room  of  a  common  boarding-house  situated  in  the 
northern  part  of  Greenwich  Street. 

''Well,  George,"  he  said,  ''have  you  recovered  entirely 
from  that  dizziness  of  the  other  night  ? " 

"Yes,"  replied  his  friend  ;  "  I  am  the  same  man  again." 

"I  suppose  you  don't  intend,"  suggested  John,  "to  be 
satisfied  with  things  as  they  are,  and  to  accept  your  whip- 
ping as  meekly  as  a  lamb  ? " 

"  If  I  only  knew,"  said  George,  "  how  to  revenge  myself, 
without  falling  again  into  the  hands  of  the  police,  before 
this  first  affair  has  been  settled  by  the  law  !  " 

"Oh,  you  may  consider  it  as  settled  by  the  law.  You 
are  out  on  bail,  you  know,  and  I  will  see  to  it  that  the  trial 
never  comes  on.  I  have  put  your  case  in  the  hands  of  a 
good  lawyer,  and  he  tells  me  there  is  no  great  danger  of 
your  being  tried  at  all." 

"  If  it  is  so,"  cried  out  George,  "  tell  me  your  plan,  if  you 
have  any,  and,  provided  I  do  not  appear  more  than  you,  I 
will  work  heartily  for  it." 

"That  is  the  right  way  to  talk,"  retorted  John.  "Hear 
me,  now.  You  know  that  we  both  are  not  alone  of  our  way 
of  thinking  about  the  Irish.     If  the  Paddies  are  as  plenty 

70 


THE  PLOT  THICKENS.  71 

as  blackberries  in  New  York,  good  Englishmen  and  Scotch- 
men of  our  stamp  are  not  a  rarity  in  the  same  place.  You 
said,  the  other  day,  that  you  could  whip  four  Irishmen,  and 
you  certainly  can ;  the  blow  you  received  was  a  surprise. 
Now,  there  are  many  men  around  as  good  as  you  ;  we  have 
only  to  find  them.  In  the  very  place  where  that  rascally 
boy,  who  struck  you,  works  every  day,  there  are  large  gangs 
of  men  who  would  be  heartily  pleased  if  our  common  enemy 
received  his  deserts.  Why  would  you  not  employ  your 
leisure  moments  in  going  to  see  them,  becoming  acquainted 
with  many  of  them,  and  talking  with  them  in  private  ?  I 
have  an  excellent  plan,  which  could  not  fail  this  time,  as 
the  scoundrelly  Irish  would  not  be  prepared  for  a  large 
number  of  opponents." 

"I  already  know,"  said  George,  ''a  number  of  those 
men  you  speak  of.  When  I  was  butler  in  your  house,  the 
mistress  could  not  be  satisfied  with  the  butter,  eggs,  and 
poultry  of  the  market ;  she  said  most  of  it  was  '  moldy  ; ' 
she  sent  me  around  the  west  side  of  the  Park,  where 
there  are  many  gardeners  and  some  small  farmers,  with 
chickens,  cows,  and  pigs.  The  d — d  Irish,  with  their  goats, 
are  not  the  only  ones,  I  tell  you.  I  have  many  friends 
among  them,  and  among  the  laborers  along  the  avenues. 
But  I  told  you  already,  I  do  not  want  to  appear  more 
than  you,  and  if  the  thing  fails  I  wish  to  have  as  fine  a 
chance  of  not  being  found  out  as  you  always  have." 

*'  Your  chance  in  this  last  affair  would  have  been  as  good 
as  mine,  had  you  not  been  struck  at  the  very  beginning. 
It  was  a  sad  accident ;  but  in  my  new  plan,  although  we 
start  the  whole  affair,  in  the  sequel  we  shall  have  no  part. 
As  our  object  will  be  to  strike  first  at  the  0' Byrnes,  our 
new  friends,  at  a  distance,  will  understand  that  we  must 
stand  aside  at  the  start.  Later  on  we  will  promise  to  join 
them  in  the  more  distant  localities ;  for  my  plot,  to  engage 
a  greater  number  of  participators,  will  be  a  universal  one 
against  all  the  Irish  of  the  neighborhood.  From  what  you 
just  told  me,  I  see  that  you  are  the  man  to  start  the  busi- 
ness in  the  quarter  known  to  you.     I  have  myself  many 


72  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

friends  in  all  the  big  houses  of  the  surrounding  district ;  I 
will  work  among  them  for  the  common  object ;  they  are  no 
more  friendly  to  the  Irish  than  we  are,  and  we  can  set  a 
fine  ball  rolling." 

'^That  will  do,"  said  George;  ''but  what  must  I  tell 
them?" 

""  You  must  tell  them  that  by  combining  our  efforts,  we 
can  wipe  out  all  the  Irish  shanties  that  are  in  their  midst. 
They  can  be  fired  without  danger  if  the  following  strict 
rules  are  kept :  first,  to  do  it  at  night,  on  foggy  days,  when 
the  lamps  burn  dimly,  and  the  darkness  is  the  greatest ; 
secondly,  to  go  in  troops  of  twenty  men,  masked  and  dis- 
guised, armed  with  clubs — no  pistols ;  that  number  will  be 
sufficient  to  overpower  the  inmates,  men  and  women,  gag 
them,  tie  their  hands  behind  their  backs,  and  send  them 
adrift ;  then  with  a  few  quarts  of  kerosene  and  some  shav- 
ings, the  huts  will  not  last  long  ;  thirdly,  to  reduce  the 
operations  for  one  night  to  half  a  dozen  shanties,  and  with- 
draw quietly,  as  soon  as  the  police  is  fully  aroused  ; 
fourthly,  to  have  a  few  sentinels  posted  in  places  most  ad- 
vantageous for  each  night's  performance,  ready  to  give  the 
alarm  when  policemen  appear  in  force.  By  strictly  follow- 
ing these  four  rules,  and  employing,  say,  two  troops  of 
twenty  the  same  night,  but  in  different  localities,  twelve  of 
those  detestable  nests  of  outlaws  can  disappear  each  night ; 
and  repeating  the  operation  several  times  during  what  re- 
mains of  the  winter,  we  shall  make  a  great  number  of  them 
disappear,  and  the  respectable  neighbors  themselves  will 
not  consent  to  the  rebuilding  of  a  single  one  of  them.  The 
last  arrangements  can  be  so  made  out,  that  the  O' Byrnes 
will  be  among  those  who  shall  first  be  wiped  out." 

The  ruffian  explained  at  length  all  the  details  of  the 
various  operations,  showed  the  perfect  security  of  the  in- 
cendiaries, and  left  George  fully  resolved  to  begin  the  very 
next  day,  by  visiting  his  former  friends  of  the  west  side. 

The  reader  may,  perhaps,  think  that  Mr.  John  was  this 
time  a  mere  dreamer,  and  seemed  to  have  lost  his  senses  ; 
but  it  would  be  very  erroneous  to  believe  so.     The  i)lan  in 


THE  PLOT  THICKENS.  73 

these  United  States  would  certainly  be  one  which  would 
suggest  itself  to  every  rascal  intent  on  mischief,  and  its 
feasibility  and  probability  of  success  could  not  be  contested. 
There  is  surely  no  country  in  the  world  where  fires  so  often 
occur  ;  and  a  good  percentage  of  them,  perhaps  as  much  as 
one  half,  are  the  work  of  the  incendiary.  Formerly  it  was 
the  boys  allowed  to  "run  with  with  the  machine,"  and 
help  the  firemen,  who  purposely  set  houses  on  fire  to  have 
the  pleasure  of  '^running "  at  night ;  very  often  the  owners 
themselves  of  the  buildings  are  guilty  of  this  crime,  merely 
for  the  sake  of  pocketing  the  insurance  ;  of tener,  probably, 
it  is  the  work  of  secret  enemies,  who  think  it  very  sweet  to 
take  their  revenge  with  a  pail  of  kerosene  oil  and  a  handful 
of  shavings.  And  as  to  the  extraordinary  boldness  of  firing 
several  buildings  on  the  same  night,  and  doing  it  in  troops 
of  twenty  men  at  a  time,  the  details  of  Mr.  John's  plan 
showed  that  he  had  taken  his  measures  so  prudently  that 
very  little  fear  could  be  entertained  of  a  sleepy  police,  or  of 
enraged  citizens ;  the  chief  necessary  precaution  consisted 
in  dispersing  in  time,  and  his  sentinels  on  guard  would  see 
to  this,  and  establish  among  the  active  agents  a  sense  of 
perfect  security.  Every  one  who  knows  the  country  must 
acknowledge  that  if  he  was  bold  in  this  last  case,  he  was 
likewise  able  and  prudent.  All  this  was  certainly  true  be- 
fore the  actual  fire  department  was  organized. 

When  he  reached  home  after  his  conversation  with 
George,  John  found  at  the  door  of  the  house  Mr.  Frede- 
rick, who  was  just  returning  from  a  ride,  and  who  threw 
him  the  reins  of  his  horse,  saying  :  ''Take  him  to  the  sta- 
ble, John  ;  you  will  oblige  me." 

"  With  great  pleasure,  sir,"  answered  the  ready  footman  ; 
and,  while  John  was  arranging  the  reins,  and  covering  with 
a  blanket  the  sweating  animal,  his  young  master  was  con- 
descending enough  this  day  to  add  :  ''It  was  very  noble  in 
you,  John,  to  act  as  you  did  toward  George  ;  and  if  you  find 
yourself  in  any  difficulty  on  that  account,  apply  to  me." 

"Thank  you  very  much,  sir,"  said  the  servant.  "I  hope 
I  will  not  need  your  help  ;  but  I  am  glad  you  approve  of 


74  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

my  conduct ;  a  man  that  is  a  man  ouglit  always  to  take  tlie 
side  of  his  friends  against  his  enemies." 

''That  is  also  my  motto,  John,"  said  Mr.  Fred,  ''and  in 
this  case  your  enemies  happen  not  to  be  my  friends." 

"Glad  to  hear  it,"  retorted  the  "  honest"  footman,  "and 
if  I  can  do  something  to  serve  you  in  that  line,  you  will  find 
me  always  ready." 

"You  may,  one  of  these  days,"  replied  Mr.  Fred  ;  and, 
handing  the  servant  a  five-dollar  bill,  the  young  gentleman 
entered  the  house. 

It  is  sad,  very  sad,  to  contemplate  plots  thickening  against 
really  honest  people,  and  see  them  left  alone  in  the  midst 
of  ravening  wolves.  This  is,  perhaps,  the  feeling  expe- 
rienced by  the  reader,  at  this  moment,  in  perusing  these 
pages.  Yet  it  must  be  said  that  the  0' Byrnes  were  not  left 
altogether  without  friends. 

The  day  after  the  attack  on  the  shanty,  early  in  the 
evening,  Mr.  Doyle,  who  had  heard  the  particulars  from 
Mr.  Kirkbride  himself  during  the  day,  was  with  the  family 
for  the  first  time  since  the  day  of  their  removal,  and  there 
could  be  no  other  subject  of  conversation  than  the  events 
of  the  previous  night.  After  all  the  narratives  of  Con,  and 
of  Julia,  and  of  Mrs.  0' Byrne,  and  of  the  old  man  himself, 
had  been  heard  by  their  old  friend,  he  said  very  deliber- 
ately :  ' '  The  attack  came  certainly  from  the  servants  of  the 
house ;  two  of  them  have  been  captured ;  the  two  others 
who  do  not  ajDpear  to  be  even  suspected,  must  have  come 
from  the  same  place,  and  I  am  sure  that  John,  the  footman, 
was  one  of  them.  I  know  him,  and  he  is  not  the  man  to 
be  satisfied  with  this  attempt ;  he  will  concoct  other  plans, 
and  engage  other  servants  of  the  neighborhood  in  the  plot. 
That  is  sure,  in  my  opinion ;  I  must  say  that  Mr.  Kirkbride 
does  not  think  so.  He  is  fully  persuaded  that  John  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it ;  he  said  that  a  hundred  little  circum- 
stances convinced  him  of  it,  and  I  am  sure  tliat  it  is  his 
candid  ojjinion;  hence  he  will  not  discharge  him,  and  we 
may  expect  trouble  from  the  fellow.  As  he  has  failed  egre- 
giously  in  his  first  attempt,  he  will  next  time  call  to  his 


THE  PLOT  THICKENS.  75 

help  people  from  outside,  and  lie  will  have  at  his  command 
many  servants  and  other  people  of  the  neighborhood.  We 
must  see  to  this,  and  have  our  party  also." 

^'  Party  !  "  exclaimed  Mr.  O' Byrne  ;  '^  how  can  we  form  a 
party  ?     I  dislike  the  very  word." 

''We  cannot  help  it,"  said  Mr.  Doyle;  ''those  fiends 
plot  against  us,  and  we  must  unite  ;  we  must  even  procure 
firearms,  if  necessary,  and  after  a  few  of  those  rascals  have 
been  laid  on  the  ground,  then  we  may  have  peace." 

''1  shall  never  consent  to  this,"  said  Mr.  O' Byrne.  "I 
would  prefer  a  great  deal  to  leave  this  place,  although  the 
gentleman  and  his  lady  are  so  kind  to  us,  and  go  anywhere, 
even  with  the  certainty  of  starving,  rather  than  openly 
engage  in  a  street  fight  with  bullies." 

Mr.  Doyle  wanted  to  be  allowed  to  explain  his  reasons, 
and  Con  was  very  anxious  to  hear  them.  The  good  man, 
who  had  lived  a  long  time  in  New  York,  had  seen  many 
queer  things  in  his  life,  chiefly  when  Nativism  and  Know- 
nothingism  were  rampant ;  he  had  Joined  many  Irish  asso- 
ciations started  with  great  justice,  on  the  ground  of  self-de- 
fense, and  at  the  time  he  was  speaking  with  the  O' Byrnes 
he  was  deep  in  the  Fenian  plots  of  the  period.  We  are 
sorry  to  say  it,  and  Ave  should  much  rather  not  have  to  re- 
cord it,  but  it  was  so.  Thus  there  was  something  of  the 
"  blood  and  raw  bones"  composition  in  his  character. 

But  of  all  the  people  in  the  cabin.  Con  was  the  only  one 
that  wished  to  listen  to  his  reasons,  and  if  the  young  man 
had  been  allowed  that  privilege,  it  is  very  likely  that  he 
would  have  become  an  ardent  supporter  of  Mr.  Doyle's 
plan.  But  the  two  women  and  stern  Mr.  0' Byrne  refused 
absolutely  to  listen,  and  said  that  they  would,  the  follow- 
ing morning,  very  sincerely  thank  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride, 
acquaint  them  with  their  real  position,  and  look  for  other 
quarters. 

"  Which  you  will  not  find,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Doyle  ;  "but 
since  you  are  so  stubborn,  let  us  try  at  least  to  make  such 
arrangements  for  your  security  that  they  will  meet  with  the 
promptings  of  your  conscience." 


76  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

"  Yery  well,''  replied  tlie  old  man,  ^'let  us  all  sleep  qui- 
etly on  the  subject,  and  to-morrow  evening  you  will  please 
come  again,  Mr.  Doyle,  and  we  will  speak  coolly  and  pru- 
dently." 

So  it  was  agreed  and  carried  out. 

The  follomng  day,  tlie  friend  of  the  house  was  again  in 
his  chair  near  the  stove,  and,  not  to  tke  our  readers  by 
giving  the  whole  conversation,  it  was  finally  resolved  to 
apply  to  a  dozen  or  so  of  strong  and  active  young  Irishmen 
living  in  the  neighborhood — who  were  all  indignant  at  what 
had  taken  place — and  to  form  them  into  a  kind  of  "mu- 
tual aid  society,"  to  repel  any  attack  that  should  be  in- 
tended, and  support  each  other  in  case  of  need.  The  great 
difficulty  was  to  invent  a  means  of  calling  them  together  in 
case  of  a  sudden  invasion  of  the  0' Byrne's  premises.  Pro- 
vidence easily  furnished  that  means ;  when  they  were  in 
the  act  of  discussing  several  plans,  a  bugle  was  heard,  which 
occasionally  played  in  the  evenings,  and  all  the  neighbors 
knew  it  was  young  Thomas  O'Neill,  who  was  indulging  in 
his  usual  recreation.  Tom  had,  a  few  years  before,  made 
all  the  campaigns  of  the  Union  ;  he  played  in  the  band  of 
the  6-th  New  York  Volunteer  Regiment,  and  after  his  re- 
turn from  the  war,  he  liked  to  recall  former  memories  by 
rehearsing  the  old  tunes  which  had  led  so  many  gallant  sol- 
diers to  battle.  As  soon  as  the  people  in  the  shanty  heard 
the  first  notes  of  the  bugle,  "That  is  it,"  said  Con,  who 
had  already  become  acquainted  with  Tom;  "he  will  play 
'  Patrick' s  Day '  for  us,  as  a  signal,  and  everybody  will  un- 
derstand the  meaning  if  he  repeats  each  line  of  the  music 
twice."  All  agreed  it  was  the  "very  thing."  In  a  few 
days  a  couple  of  dozens  of  neighbors  had  formally  given 
their  word  as  members  of  the  "mutual  aid  society,"  and 
events  could  be  waited  for  with  patience. 

Meanwhile,  George  and  John  had  not  been  idle  in  the  fur- 
thering of  their  plan  ;  and  several  fierce  anti-Irish  partisans 
seconded  them  admirably. 

It  was  in  this  conjuncture  of  interesting  circumstances 


THE  PLOT  THICKENS.  77 

that  Mr.  Frederick  felt  the  need  of  help  from  John  as  he 
had  given  him  to  understand  a  few  days  before,  and  called 
him  to  the  stable  under  the  pretext  of  looking  at  one  of  the 
horses.  John,  as  groom,  had  there  a  room  of  his  own,  and 
both  entered  it. 

'^ To-morrow,"  said  the  young  man,  ^'I  will  want  your 
help  badly,  and  I  am  sure  you  shall  give  it  heartily." 

''You  are  not  mistaken  there,  sir,"  said  John  ;  "  I  will  do 
for  you  anything  that  is  possible." 

''Well,  listen  to  me,  and  I  shall  handsomely  reward 
you.  I  am  dabbling  in  stocks  ;  until  this  time  I  used  some- 
body to  appear  in  my  place  ;  I  must  now  do  it  boldly,  but 
you  must  keep  the  thing  most  secret.  Lately  I  went 
into  it  pretty  deep;  there  is  money  I  have  to  replace." 
He  did  not  say  that  it  was  his  father's  money.  "To- 
morrow shall  decide  if  I  can  replace  it  or  not.  There  is 
among  the  brokers  a  detestable  Irishman,  whom  I  have  to 
treat  as  a  friend,  although  I  loathe  him.  I  know  he  pays 
me  in  the  same  coin,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  am  al- 
most in  his  clutches.  To-morrow  is  to  be  a  great  and  excit- 
ing day  at  the  stock  exchange  ;  if  that  Irish  rascal  is  there, 
I  fear  he  will  floor  me  ;  if  he  is  absent,  I  know  that  I  shall 
floor  him.  The  object  of  my  speaking  with  you  is  to  keep 
him  out.  I  have  a  plan  of  my  own,  and  you  are  needed  for 
its  execution.  To-moiTow  I  will  take  Mr.  O'Tee — that  is 
his  name — in  my  carriage  to  my  lawyer's,  where  we  have 
some  business  to  transact.  It  is  already  agreed  between  us 
that  afterward  we  will  both  go  to  the  exchange  in  my  car- 
riage. You  shall  be  the  groom,  and  you  will  take  from  the 
stable  what  horses  you  choose.  When  we  come  down  from 
the  lawyer's  office,  mj  friend,  of  course,  will  enter  first, 
and  just  when  I  am  about  to  get  in  myself,  I  will  remember 
that  I  have  forgotten  to  sign  some  checks  left  in  the  law- 
yer's hands  for  use  on  that  day.  Can  you  not  manage, 
meanwhile,  to  have  the  horses  run  away  with  him,  and  to 
dispose  everything  so  that  the  fellow  may  not  be  able  to  bid 
for  stocks  that  day?"  And  Mr.  Frederick  waited,  evi- 
dently with  deep  anxiety,  for  John's  answer. 


78  LOUISA  XntKBRIDE. 

' '  If  there  is  some  damage  done  to  the  carriage,  will  that 
signify  ? "  said  the  worthy  footman. 

''  Not  in  the  least,"  did  Mr.  Fred  ejaculate,  with  manifest 
relief  ;  "  only  try  not  to  break  yonr  own  bones." 

"I  have  no  fear  of  that,"  replied  the  sldllful  Jockey,  and 
he  was  going  out  of  the  room,  when  his  gentlemanly  friend 
called  him  back,  and  inquired  kindly  if  he  had  himself 
some  business  on  hand  with  respect  to  the  0' Byrnes  ;  and, 
hearing  that  something  would  shortly  ''  turnup,"  only  they 
wanted  funds  to  gain  over  a  few  '^wavering"  friends,  Mr. 
Frederick,  with  an  open,  generous,  and  free  manner,  took 
out  his  pocket-book,  and  handed  over  to  the  admiring  John 
a  good  solid  hundred-dollar  bill. 

The  day  following,  when  the  coast  was  clear  at  the  man- 
sion, and  Mr.  Kirkbride  had  gone  early  to  his  ofSce,  John 
selected  two  fiery  horses,  whom,  Avith  a  single  touch  of  his 
whip  applied  on  a  certain  spot,  he  could  render  almost  furi- 
ous ;  and  young  Mr.  Frederick,  after  a  last  word  of  encour- 
agement to  the  valet,  took  his  seat  in  the  vehicle,  and  both 
were  in  a  very  short  time  at  the  residence  of  Mr.  O'Tee, 
who  was  found  waiting.  The  two  gentlemen  on  their  way 
to  the  lawyer's  office  appeared  in  the  best  spirits,  and  were 
evidently  used  to  each  other's  company;  the  conversation 
was  extremely  pleasant  and  animated  ;  and  even  in  the 
lawyer's  office,  when  they  reached  it,  their  business  trans- 
actions appeared  extremely  cordial  and  good-natured.  The 
place  was  far  from  Wall  Street,  up  town  in  fact ;  Mr.  Fred- 
erick did  not  wish  that  his  own  agent  should  be  too  near 
Mr.  Wilson,  his  father's  attorney.  It  was  Just  at  the  lower 
end  of  Sixth  Avenue,  where  some  stray  third-class  lawyers 
can  be  found,  or  at  least  were  yet  found  at  the  time.  The 
law  business  being  concluded,  every  particle  of  the  pro- 
gramme arranged  beforehand  by  Mr.  Frederick  was  car- 
ried through,  and  Mr.  O'Tee  was  quite  Avilling  to  wait  in 
the  carriage  until  his  friend  had  gone  and  come  back. 
Here  John' s  skill  was  to  be  tested. 

At  the  moment  his  young  master  left,  he  perceived  a 
heavy  wagon  coming  down  on  him  led  by  mules,  which 


THE  PLOT  THICKENS.  79 

would  have  to  pass  between  his  own  carriage  and  a  Sixth 
Avenue  car  running  up  at  the  time  in  a  direction  contrary 
to  that  of  the  wagon.  Being  on  the  east  side  of  the  avenue 
and  coming  from  a  transverse  street  just  at  the  end  of  it, 
on  the  same  side,  there  was  nothing  strange  that  the  heads 
of  his  horses  should  be  turned  north,  although  Wall  Street, 
where  he  was  going  afterward,  was  certainly  south.  Just 
when  both  the  wagon  and  the  horse-car  came  to  be  in  a  line 
with  his  coach,  he  saw  his  horses  prick  up  their  ears  at  the 
sight  of  the  mules,  and  this  was  the  favorable  instant. 
Gently  tightening  the  reins  as  if  to  check  his  horses,  he  gave 
them  at  the  same  time  a  slight  touch  of  the  whip  on  the 
spot  he  knew,  and  directly  the  animals,  throwing  back  their 
legs  as  for  a  kick,  started  furiously,  with  head  erect,  mane 
flowing,  eyes  full  of  fire  and  fury.  On  the  sidewalk  there 
was  a  sudden  outcry  from  the  pedestrians  who  witnessed  the 
first  pranks  of  the  runaways.  This  gave  new  speed  to  the 
animals,  who  galloped  wildly  to  the  north.  The  drivers  of 
all  the  vehicles  in  front,  turning  their  heads  and  seeing  the 
danger,  whipped  their  horses  to  get  out  of  the  way ;  there  was 
soon  a  terrible  turmoil  and  confusion  all  along  the  avenue  ; 
but  no  one  dared  to  interpose  any  obstacle  to  the  infuriated 
animals.  On  they  went ;  on  they  flew  ;  at  every  crosswalk 
met  in  the  way,  the  carriage  bounded  and  several  times 
appeared  about  to  turn  over ;  but  it  was  well  built,  and 
again  fell  plump  on  the  bed  of  the  road.  Poor  Mr.  O'  Tee, 
alone  inside,  threw  himself  on  the  forward  seat,  and  knock- 
ing against  the  glass  repeatedly,  evidently  wanted  John  to 
check  the  horses  ;  John  did  not  mind  him,  but,  shrugging 
his  shoulders,  appeared  to  mean  that  he  could  not,  the  reins 
would  rather  break.  He  stood  up  himself  on  the  driver's 
bench,  reins  in  hand,  cool  and  collected,  steadily  keeping 
his  equilibrium  whenever  there  was  a  jerk,  and  watching 
events.  All  the  people  on  the  sidewalk  stopped  and  looked 
at  him.  "  A  fine  fellow,"  they  seemed  to  say,  ''who  knows 
his  business." 

The  noble  steeds,  kept  up  in  their  wildness  by  the  univer- 
sal agitation  all  around,  pulled  at  the  reins,  foamed  at  the 


80  LOUISA  EIREBRIDE. 

mouth,  drew  fire  from  the  pavement  at  every  step,  keeping 
time,  however,  each  with  the  other,  and  galloping  in  perfect 
unison.  On  they  went,  on  they  flew ;  Twentieth  Street  is 
already  left  behind  ;  twice  at  every  block  the  carriage  is  fu- 
riously jerked  ;  will  it  always  fall  so  gracefully  on  its  level 
axle  ?  Many  a  man  on  the  sidewalk  asks  himself  that  ques- 
tion ;  but  the  answer  shall  not  be  known  for  a  quarter  of 
an  hour.  Poor  Mr.  O'Tee,  wilder  than  ever,  finally  breaks 
the  glass  in  front,  and  cries  out  to  John  :  ' '  Can' t  you  stop  ? ' ' 

^^No!"  answers  John,  who  again  resumes  his  coolness 
and  self-possession. 

Thirtieth  Street  is  already  far  behind,  and  up  to  this, 
by  a  kind  of  miracle,  all  the  vehicles  and  wagons  in  front 
have  been  able  to  get  out  of  the  way.  Will  it  always  be 
so  ?  Will  it  continue  to  be  so  until  the  Park  is  reached  ? 
Then  there  is  hope  for  poor  Mr.  0'  Tee. 

Unfortunately,  at  the  corner  of  Forty-fourth  Street  a  long 
wagon  is  standing  transversely,  the  back  on  the  curbstone, 
the  horses  with  the  body  of  the  cart  across  the  avenue. 
The  driver  is  in  the  store  at  the  corner,  where  he  has 
brought  in  some  house  furniture.  He  knows  nothing  of 
the  excitement  on  the  street  until  the  danger  is  near.  Then 
he  runs  out,  he  flies  to  his  team,  but  too  late  !  The  wild 
horses,  seeing  the  obstacle,  try  to  turn  it  by  jumping  on  the 
sidewalk  itself — for  there  was  a  horse-car  on  the  track  in 
the  middle  of  the  avenue.  John,  never  losing  his  self-pos- 
session, has  jumped  on  the  sidewalk,  has  been  stunned  for 
a  moment,  but  can  soon  stand  on  his  feet.  The  wheel  of 
the  carriage  has  struck  against  the  curbstone,  the  carriage 
itself  is  dashed  on  the  sidewalk.  In  a  moment  John  is  at 
the  horses'  heads,  preventing  them  from  dragging  the  broken 
coach  any  farther,  and  several  men  from  the  corner  store 
are  there  in  an  instant  to  help  the  poor  Mr.  O'Tee,  all  bleed- 
ing and  bruised,  buried  under  a  mass  of  shapeless  debris. 
A  mattress  was  procured  on  which  he  was  gently  placed, 
and,  with  poles  j)assed  under,  men  carried  him  across  the 
avenue  to  a  druggist's  store  on  the  west  side,  a  few  doors 
from  the  corner.     Several  physicians  of  the  neighborhood 


THE  PLOT  THIGKEN8.  81 

were  quickly  on  tlie  spot ;  they  examined  the  patient,  who 
complained  chiefly  of  one  of  his  arms  and  one  of  his  legs. 
They  soon  found  that  the  right  arm  was  fractured  above 
the  elbow,  and  the  left  leg  badly  sprained ;  the  blood  came 
only  from  his  hands,  with  which  he  had  broken  the  front 
panes  of  glass. 

Mr.  O'Tee,  at  his  own  request,  was  placed  in  a  hack  called 
dn  for  the  purpose,  and  conveyed  to  his  residence,  which, 
happily,  was  very  near,  on  the  east  side,  toward  Fifth  Ave- 
nue. John,  meanwhile,  had  found  out  that  his  horses  were 
uninjured  ;  he  was  himseK  safe  and  sound  ;  all  around  con- 
gratulated him  on  his  coolness  ;  if  the  gentleman  inside  had 
not  been  killed  outright,  it  was  owing  to  his  presence  of 
mind,  which  made  him  forget  the  shock  he  had  received,  and 
stop  the  horses.  In  the  midst  of  these  sincere  congratula- 
tions, he  proudly  stepped  out,  reins  in  hand,  walking  his 
sweating  runaways  till  he  had  them  housed  in  their  stable 
on  Madison  Avenue.  The  whole  affair  had  succeeded  admi- 
rably, and  he  was  sure  that  Mr.  Fred's  friendship  was  for- 
ever secured. 

This  young  sprig  of  aristocracy  was,  in  fact,  at  this  mo- 
ment, in  the  delights  of  ecstasy.  He  had  seen  the  splendid 
start  of  his  steeds.  From  the  windows  of  the  lawyer's  ofiice 
he  had  witnessed  the  whole  scene — of  course  expressing  a 
great  deal  of  surprise,  disappointment,  and  all  that,  crying 
wildly  at  the  awkwardness  of  John,  who  had  allowed  his 
horses  to  run  away,  but  inwardly  thanking  his  stars  that 
he  had  such  an  intelligent  valet,  and  perfectly  sure  now 
that  the  end  of  the  race  would  be  as  lucky  to  him  as 
the  beginning.  Having  signed  his  checks,  he  hired  a  cab, 
and  was  at  the  stock  exchange  in  time  to  take  part  in  its 
operations  from  the  very  beginning.  He  took  it  for  granted 
that  Mr.  O'Tee  would  not  be  in  his  way  that  day,  at  least, 
and  it  was  for  him  a  great  stroke  of  good  fortune.  The 
broker's  feelings  toward  Mr.  Frederick  were  exactly  as  the 
young  gentleman  had  described  them  to  John,  and  he  had 
the  immense  advantage  of  knowing  perfectly  the  inside  cards 
of  his  antagonist.  There  is  no  need  of  detailing  the  cunning 
6 


82  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE, 

tricks  by  which  he  had  managed  to  find  this  out.  A  leading 
member  of  the  exchange,  he  could  give  to  the  operations  of 
the  day  almost  the  turn  he  wished,  and  his  intention  was 
certainly  to  floor  Mr.  Frederick,  as  he  had  himself  expressed 
it,  by  loading  him  with  stock  of  a  kind  which  he  could 
scarcely  carry,  and  obliging  him  to  pay  at  the  end  of  the 
day  very  heavy  balances,  for  which  he  was  totally  unpre- 
pared. The  ruin  of  the  young  scamp  was  certain,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  broker,  when  they  both  left  his  residence  that 
morning,  and  now,  on  a  bed  of  suffering,  he  was  racked  be- 
sides by  the  thought  that  his  enemy  would  not  suffer  any- 
thing from  him  that  day. 

Young  Kirkbride  could  play  his  cards  in  safety  ;  and  as 
the  object  was  of  immense  importance  to  him,  he  played, 
for  once,  skillfully.  When  business  time  was  over,  he  had 
made  such  profits  that  his  margin  enabled  him  to  redeem 
the  bonds  belonging  to  his  father,  which  he  had  dared  to 
pledge ;  and  if  he  was  not  rich  himself  afc  the  end  of  his 
operations,  at  least  ruin  did  no  more  stare  him  in  the  face. 
Hence,  when  he  returned  home,  with  the  bonds  in  his  pocket, 
ready  to  be  replaced  where  he  had  taken  them,  he  would 
have  openly  embraced  ^'honest"  John  if  he  had  met  him 
on  his  way. 

The  following  day  all  the  morning  papers  contained  de- 
scriptions of  the  ''accident"  that  had  happened  to  the 
broker,  and  they  were  all  more  or  less  laudatory  of  Mr. 
Kirkbride' s  groom,  who  had  saved  the  life  of  a  gentleman 
so  well  and  favorably  known  on  the  stock  exchange  and  in 
society.  Mr.  John  was  reaping  an  exuberant  harvest  of 
glory. 

This  could  not  but  encourage  him  in  the  prosecution  of 
his  other  plans,  and  to  this  important  concern  of  ours  we 
must  turn  our  eyes,  after  a  rapid  glance  at  the  actual  state 
of  the  O' Byrne  family. 

The  old  lady  was  really  convalescent,  as  good  Dr.  Dillon 
had  predicted ;  Julia,  having  altogether  recovered  from 
her  fright,  was  as  buoyant,  active,  and  happy  as  she  had 


THE  PLOT  THICKENS.  83 

ever  been  in  her  life  ;  she  had  received  the  gifts  first  pur- 
chased by  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  and  many  others  bought  in  con- 
sequence of  that  "  horrible  night."  Con  worked  every  day 
on  Eighth  Avenue,  and  went  often  in  the  evening  to  see 
his  friend  Tom  O'Neill,  who  ^.mused  him  by  his  tales  of 
the  war  along  the  Potomac  and  the  Mississippi.  Old  Mr. 
^O' Byrne  worked  hard  in  the  Park,  and  sometimes  received, 
late  in  the  evening,  a  visit  from  Mr.  Doyle,  w^ho  was  very 
active  in  the  formation  of  his  ''mutual  aid  society,"  but 
never  dared  to  open  his  mouth  about  that  hobby  of  Fenian- 
ism,  of  which  his  old  friend  would  not  hear  any  more. 
They  all  thanked  God  sincerely  for  their  actual  peace  and 
happiness  ;  yet  many  others  in  their  place  would,  no  doubt, 
have  complained  of  many  things,  for  they  were  not  exactly 
in  the  perfect  enjoyment  of  the  goods  of  this  life.  The 
winter,  which  had  been  severe  so  early,  continued  hard 
throughout.  Snow-storms  succeeded  each  other  with  a  dis- 
heartening perseverance ;  and  every  snow-storm  around 
their  shanty  brought  with  it  an  additional  trouble,  and 
sometimes  additional  suffering.  The  level  of  their  floor 
was  at  least  twelve  feet  under  the  bed  of  the  surrounding 
streets,  and  invariably  the  eddies  of  the  wind,  with  cruel 
persistence,  whirled  to  their  hole  all  the  drifts  accumulated 
irregularly  in  a  large  circle  around  them.  At  times,  in  the 
morning,  their  shanty  was  literally  buried  in  the  snow  ;  and 
the  old  man  and  his  son  had  to  get  up  earlier  than  they 
would  have  wished,  and,  after  a  hasty  prayer  to  God,  at  it 
they  went,  ojDening  roads,  clearing  away  the  snow,  heaping 
it  up  at  a  distance,  and  rendering  the  exit  from  the  cottage 
at  least  possible  for  the  women  during  the  day. 

The  wind  was  very  cold  and  annoying  to  the  family. 
They  had  replaced  the  sashes  of  the  window  in  Mrs. 
O' Byrne's  bedroom,  and  Con  had  taken  his  first  lesson  in 
the  intricacies  of  ropes  and  weights  as  applied  to  ih^  as- 
cending and  descending  parts  of  the  frame.  But  the  poor 
people  were  not  long  in  ascertaining  that  such  a  piece  of 
carpentering  is  not  the  best  to  exclude  cold  air  from  any 
room.     They  could  not  think  of  pasting  slips  of  paper  or  of 


84  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE, 

rags,  as  they  had  often  entirely  to  opsn  the  windows  on  ac- 
count of  the  smoke ;  for  the  top  of  their  chimney  was  ex- 
actly on  a  level  with  the  next  avenue,  and  the  wind  sweep- 
ing along  that  interminable  street  took  a  kind  of  pleasure 
in  getting  in  by  the  top  of  the  flue,  and  filling  their  rooms 
with  smoke  and  soot.  In  the  big  house  precautions  were 
better  taken  against  all  those  accidents  ;  but  it  is  fated  that 
the  poor,  even  when  they  enjoy  the  necessaries  of  life,  must 
be  subjected  to  a  thousand  annoyances  and  sufferings  al- 
together unknown  to  those  who  happen  to  have  money. 
These  were  the  monotonous  details  of  the  life  of  the  Irish 
family.  Happy,  however,  if  something  far  worse  had  not 
been  at  that  very  moment  in  store  for  them. 

A  gloomy  night  of  February,  during  a  thav/,  when  the 
whole  city  of  New  York  was  enveloped  in  the  folds  of  a 
sheet  of  vapor,  as  thick  as  the  thickest  cloud,  was  the  time 
determined  upon  by  the  concocter  of  the  whole  contrivance. 
Twenty  men  coming  from  the  north  side — nobody  was  ever 
able  afterward  to  ascertain  where  they  had  met  together — 
with  black  masks  on  their  faces,  each  with  a  club  in  his 
right  hand,  one  of  them  carrying  a  tin  vessel  of  the  capacity 
of  a  gallon,  and  another  a  sack  full  of  shavings,  appeared 
suddenly  at  the  door  of  the  shanty,  and  the  two  foremost 
tried  to  push  it  in  quietly.  Mr.  Doyle  happened  that  night 
to  be  with  his  friends,  and  was  just  standing,  his  back 
against  the  door.  In  his  previous  arrangements  he  had 
prepared  with  Con  a  number  of  strong  bars  of  wood,  which 
could  in  a  moment  be  placed  in  heavy  sockets  of  wood  like- 
wise, nailed  by  him  on  both  sides  of  the  door,  and  one  of 
those  bars  happened  fortunately  to  be  within  the  reach  of 
his  hand.  He  did  not  yield  to  the  pressure  of  the  men  who 
wanted  to  come  in  without  knocking  ;  but  crying  out,  '^  Who 
is  there?"  he  placed  the  bar  in  its  sockets.  Con,  looking 
slyly  at  the  window,  saw  a  number  of  men,  and  saying  in 
a  low  tone,  ^'They  have  come,  the  bandits!"  he  slipped 
away  to  the  bedroom  of  his  mother,  was  in  a  moment  out 
of  the  window,  and  creeping  up  along  the  bank  unper- 
ceived  by  the  ruffians,  who  were  all  grouped  in  front  of 


THE  PLOT  THICKENS.  85 

the  shanty,  he  ran  to  give  the  alarm  to  Tom,  only  a  block 
distant. 

But  before  the  bngle  could  sound,  the  bandits — since 
Con  had  thus  called  them — openly  asked  admittance,  and 
were  openly  refused  by  Mr.  O' Byrne  and  Mr.  Doyle.  They 
pushed  at  the  door  ;  but  it  was  solid,  and  an  additional  bar 
had  been  adjusted  by  Mr.  Doyle.  Their  clubs  could  not 
break  it ;  they  had  made  no  provision  for  such  a  circum- 
stance, which  they  could  scarcely  foresee ;  and  they  ap- 
peared to  be  baffled  at  least  momentarily. 

The  bugle  at  this  moment  sounded  ;  but  not  knowing  the 
meaning  of  it,  they  did  not  mind  it  in  the  least,  nor  did 
they  think  of  running  away.  Neither  ' '  honest ' '  John  nor 
George  was  with  them,  of  course,  and  they  appeared  no- 
vices in  such  a  surprise  party.  One  of  them,  however,  re- 
membered the  window  of  the  bedroom ;  half  of  the  whole 
number  followed  him,  and,  breaking  by  force  both  sashes, 
they  were  soon  in  the  interior  of  the  cottage.  The  two  poor 
women  threw  themselves  in  one  of  the  corners  of  the  front 
room  ;  Mr.  O' Byrne  and  Mr.  Doyle,  their  back  to  the  door, 
armed  themselves  with  the  wooden  bars,  and  stood  side  to 
side  with  the  hard  weapons  in  their  hands.  The  ruffians 
outside  followed  the  first  who  had  entered,  and  the  whole 
troop  of  bandits,  with  their  clubs,  filled  both  rooms  of  the 
cottage,  and  stood  compact  in  front  of  the  two  Irishmen. 
Doyle  was  the  first  to  strike,  and  with  a  single  blow,  well 
applied  to  the  outstretched  arms  of  two  enemies,  he  disabled 
them  at  once.  0' Byrne,  following  his  example,  nearly  broke 
the  shoulder  blade  of  another,  and  the  first  scream  of  the 
evening  came  from  the  wounded  ruffian,  but  could  not  be 
heard  outside  of  the  cottage.  Here  a  confused  melee  ensued ; 
the  invaders  struck  each  other  oftener  than  they  could  reach 
the  Irishmen  ;  they  had  received  positive  orders  not  to  kill, 
but  merely  to  tie  the  hands  of  their  victims,  send  them 
adrift,  and  burn  the  shanty.  This,  their  number  enabled 
them  at  last  to  execute.  Mr.  O' Byrne  and  Mr.  Doyle, 
overpowered,  were  strongly  bound  with  cords  ;  the  same 
was  done  to  the  women,  and  the  four  together  were  brought 


86  LOUISA  KIEEBBIDE. 

outside  by  the  door,  now  open,  and  told  to  run  for  their 
life. 

But  at  this  moment  the  tables  were  turned  by  the  sudden 
coming  in  of  more  than  a  dozen  members  of  the  "mutual 
aid  association,"  led  by  Con  and  Tom,  and  accompanied 
by  two  policemen,  one  of  whom  was  our  friend  Ahern,  who, 
since  the  first  outrage,  was  keeping  a  better  lookout  on  the 
avenue.  We  cannot  describe  in  detail  the  short  conflict 
which  followed,  and  which  ended  by  the  securing  of  four 
of  the  bandits  and  the  binding  of  them  with  the  very  cords 
they  had  brought.  But  the  best  operation  of  the  night  was 
the  seizure  of  the  bold  man  to  whom  the  gallon  of  kerosene 
had  been  intrusted.  He  was  in  the  very  act  of  pouring  the 
fluid  on  some  shavings  near  the  red-hot  stove,  when  Con 
and  Ahern  came  suddenly  upon  him  ;  the  former  was  pro- 
vided with  a  pail  of  water,  found  in  a  corner  of  the  shanty  ; 
the  latter,  with  his  club,  first  stunned  the  incendiary,  pre- 
paratory to  securing  his  hands  with  a  rather  scientific  knot. 
Their  companions  ran  away  at  once  and  disappeared.  Mean- 
while Doyle  and  old  0' Byrne,  with  the  two  women,  had 
been  freed  by  Tom  O'JSTeill,  and  all  together  congratulated 
themselves  on  the  success  of  the  plan  suggested  by  the 
old  friend  of  the  family.  The  masks  were  torn  from  the 
faces  of  the  five  secured  ruflians,  who  refused  obstinately  to 
speak  ;  but  none  of  them  could  be  recognized  by  any  of  the 
Irishmen  ;  they  were  evidently  not  living  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. The  two  policemen,  calling  to  their  help  four  mem- 
bers of  the  ''mutual  aid  society,"  carried  their  prisoners  to 
the  police  station,  where  they  were  lodged  for  the  night. 

Until  the  arrival  of  Con  and  Tom,  with  their  friendly 
troop,  there  had  been  scarcely  any  noise  in  the  attack  and 
rescue  we  have  recorded  ;  but  from  the  moment  when  two 
hostile  bodies  of  men  had  been  pitching  at  each  other  in 
the  open  lot,  the  whole  block  was  in  an  uproar,  and  the 
inmates  of  the  Kirkbride  mansion  could  not  but  become 
aware  thai  a  conflic^t  was  going  on  under  their  back  win- 
dows. The  whole  family  was  at  home,  all  the  servants  at 
their  duty,  and  chiefly   "honest"  John  was,  that  night, 


THE  PLOT  THICKENS.  87 

particularly  obedient  to  the  orders  of  his  master.  Mr. 
Frederick,  who  had  been  secretly  led  by  him  to  believe 
that  ''there  might  be  some  fun  this  evening,"  was  un- 
usually quiet  and  collected,  probably  waiting  for  "coming 
events." 

^  When  the  noise  finally  became  too  loud  not  to  be  noticed, 
Mr.  Kirkbride  told  his  footman  to  go  out  and  inquire  what 
was  the  matter.  He  went  and  came  back  almost  imme- 
diately, reporting  that  the  Irish  shanty  was  full  of  men  in 
great  agitation,  that  other  men  w^ere  running  wildly  with 
black  masks  on  their  faces,  but  he  could  not  tell  w^hat  was 
the  cause  of  all  the  disturbance.  Mr.  Kirkbride,  greatly 
surprised,  took  out  of  a  small  drawer  a  common  Derringer 
pistol,  which  he  often  carried  on  his  person  for  self-preser- 
vation, and  left  the  house.  He  went  straight  to  the  cottage, 
out  of  which  the  two  policemen,  at  that  very  moment,  were 
leading  the  incendiary,  and  he  inquired  of  them  what  had 
the  prisoner  been  doing :  "Nothing  less,  sir,  than  trying  to 
set  the  cottage  on  fire,"  replied  Ahern.  And  going  in,  the 
gentleman  smelt  the  kerosene  without  mistake,  saw  the 
black  mixture  of  coal  and  water  spread  on  the  floor,  and 
pressed  with  his  foot  a  sack  which  had  been  left,  and  which 
was  found  to  be  full  of  shavings.  This  is  serious,  he 
thought,  and  addressing  the  policemen,  he  said  :  "I  thank 
you,  officers,  for  your  vigilance ;  please  tell  your  captain 
that  I  would  be  very  much  obliged  to  him,  if  he  came  to 
my  house  to-morrow  morning  between  nine  and  ten.  I 
must  speak  with  him  as  soon  as  possible,  and  I  might  not 
find  him  at  the  station  house,  if  I  went  there.  I  will  wait 
for  him.  Good  night,  gentlemen,  take  good  care  of  your 
prisoner." 

Then,  the  poor  Irish  family  being  left  alone,  he  sent  Con 
to  the  mansion  with  the  order  that  his  footman,  his  butler, 
and  the  porter  should  come  directly  to  the  shanty,  with  old 
blankets,  nails,  hammers,  etc.  ;  and  when  they  arrived,  he 
directed  them  to  nail  a  couple  of  old  blankets  on  the  open- 
ing of  the  bedroom  window,  which  had  been  hopelessly 
destroyed;  he  made  them  set  to  rights  everything  left  in 


88  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

disorder,  and  lie  did  not  leave  the  place  before  the  0' Byrnes 
were  at  least  protected  from  the  hard  frost  during  the  night. 
Our  readers  may  imagine  with  what  cordiality  John  obeyed 
these  orders  of  his  master. 

The  following  morning,  the  police  captain  came  as  desired, 
and  promised  to  employ  two  good  detectives  to  ferret  out  the 
leaders  of  the  late  plot — Mr.  Kirkbride  taking  upon  himself 
the  whole  expense — and  a  new  legal  case  was  opened  ;  but 
this  time  it  was  not  between  the  O' Byrnes  and  the  two 
former  ruffians.  It  was  between  Mr.  Ralph  S.  Kirkbride 
and  the  late  incendiaries,  or  rather  from  the  State  against 
them,  on  the  complaint  of  the  aforesaid  gentleman. 

There  is  no  need  of  mentioning  that,  the  following  day, 
carpenters  and  glaziers  came  to  the  shanty,  repaired  the 
damage  of  the  previous  evening,  and  made  the  poor  dwell- 
ing more  comfortable,  and  less  exposed  to  cold  and  smoke 
than  it  had  ever  been  before.  This  was  the  result  of  the 
visit  of  the  gentleman  who  had  never  entered  it  before,  and 
would  certainly  not  have  done  so  this  time,  had  not  the 
attempt  of  the  banditti  called  him  to  it. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FATHEE  AND   80]^-  IN  THE  MANSION. 

In  all  his  commercial  and  speculative  enterprises,  Mr. 
Kirkbride  had  been  remarkably  successful  in  life.  From 
Ms  father  he  had  received  the  leadership  in  a  growing  im- 
porting concern,  and  his  skill  and  attention  to  business  had 
made  his  house  one  of  the  first  in  New  York,  a  city  which 
was,  even  in  the  time  of  his  youth,  the  chief  emporium  of 
the  whole  country.  Philadelpliia,  w^hich  for  a  long  time 
had  overshadowed  it,  could  no  more  compete  with  the  more 
favorably  situated  Empire  City ;  and  the  great  w^ork  of  De 
Witt  Clinton,  the  canal  which  connected  the  Hudson  Eiver 
with  the  lakes,  had  secured  apparently  forever  her  su- 
premacy, by  placing  under  her  almost  supreme  control  the 
commerce  of  the  ever-growing  West. 

From  the  merchants  and  banks  of  the  great  city  he 
could  command  illimited  credit,  and  everybody  knows  how 
much  this  favors  extensive  and  lucrative  operations.  His 
honesty,  integrity,  and  fairness  attracted  toward  his  com- 
mercial centre  the  most  important  houses,  not  only  of  New 
York,  but,  it  may  be  said,  of  the  whole  United  States.  The 
war  of  1861  had,  it  is  true,  deprived  him  of  a  large  income 
which  his  dealings  with  the  South  formerly  secured  him. 
But  it  was  hoped  at  that  time  that  the  Southern  States 
would  soon  be  reconstructed^  and  become  again  a  source  of 
prosperity  for  the  North. 

To  the  large  business  transactions  of  his  firm,  he  had 
lately  added  extensive  speculations  in  real  estate.  His 
father,  before  dying,  had  warned  him  against  embracing  too 


90  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

mucli,  and  going,  for  tlie  sake  of  an  immediate  profit,  out  of 
the  regular  line  of  his  commerce  ;  and,  until  a  few  years  be- 
fore the  beginning  of  this  story,  he  had  strictly  followed  the 
paternal  advice.  Seeing,  however,  occasionally  in  his  own 
hands  large  amounts  of  which  he  could  dispose  as  he  wished 
without  any  injury  to  his  commercial  enterprises,  he  began 
to  invest  in  real  estate  ;  yet,  from  the  beginning,  he  proposed 
never  to  gamble^  but  to  purchase,  in  order  to  Jceep  until  large 
profits  could  be  realized  merely  by  the  natural  growth  of 
the  city.  By  this  simple  process,  he  had  added  immensely 
to  his  wealth.  He  was  admirably  seconded  in  these  opera- 
tions by  an  agent,  Mr.  W.  Croft,  whose  interest  he  secured 
by  a  good  percentage,  and  of  whose  honesty  he  was  per- 
fectly sure,  the  more  so  because  he  always  kept  a  sharp 
look  on  this  branch  of  his  business  transactions. 

Inside  of  his  splendid  dwelling  he  could  also  promise  him- 
self real  hai3piness.  From  what  we  know  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride, 
the  reader  of  these  pages  is  aware  that  he  could  not  have 
found  a  better  wife  in  the  whole  city.  The  few  words  we 
have  said  of  her  scarcely  give  a  faint  idea  of  her  matchless 
virtues  ;  when  all  is  told,  at  the  end  of  this  story,  we  shall 
be  enabled  to  appreciate  her  to  her  full  value.  Her  hus- 
band, for  whom  she  had  no  secret,  loved  her  tenderly,  and 
found  in  that  affection  his  best  treasure,  as  it  was  heartfelt, 
and  did  not  please  only  his  eyes  or  his  palate  like  the  gild- 
ing of  his  apartments  or  the  viands  of  his  table. 

This  alone  would  be  high  praise  for  him,  since  very  few 
are  the  men  who  appreciate  moral  goodness,  even  in  their 
nearest  relatives ;  they  are  generally  captivated  by  the 
senses,  and  not  entranced  by  the  simple,  naked  beauty  of 
pure  virtue.  Mr.  Kirkbride  was  a  true  man,  not  only  gen- 
erous-minded and  noble-hearted,  but  a  sound  appreciator  of 
what  is  true  and  false,  detesting  vice  even  when  it  glitters, 
and  always  the  ready  friend  of  real  goodness,  even  under 
the  most  humble  garb.  His  conduct  toward  the  O' Byrne 
family  is  a  sure  proof  of  it ;  how  could  he  not  have  admired 
his  wife,  when  he  knew  her  so  thoroughly  ? 

For  many  years,  that  happiness  of  the  domestic  ckcle 


FATHER  AND  SON  IN  THE  MANSION  91 

appeared  secured  to  him  for  his  whole  life.  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
had  given  him  ^yq  beautiful  children  whom  he  could  mold 
as  he  pleased — at  least,  thus  he  fancied — he  was  a  ^\ise  and 
good  father ;  they  would  surely  follow  his  lead.  But  four 
of  them  had  been  snatched  away  by  grim  Death  before  our 
story  began  ;  the  last  one,  a  charming  little  girl,  a  few 
months  before.  Mr.  Frederick,  the  first-born,  was  the  only 
one  remaining.  All  the  hope  of  the  family  was  concentrated 
in  that  young  scamp.  We  call  him  so,  because  we  know 
him  already  much  better  than  his  father  did,  although,  as 
we  have  seen,  he  had  himself  some  faint  notion  of  the 
moral  ugliness  of  his  boy,  and  this  was  already  a  worm 
gnaTvang  at  his  heart. 

The  father  had  done  for  his  son  all  that  a  man  could  do. 
The  boy,  when  a  child,  had  received  instruction  from  an 
intelligent  governess  in  the  house ;  he  had  been  sent  later 
to  a  fashionable  academy ;  then  to  a  renowned  grammar 
school  in  Xew  York,  and  he  had  finally  graduated  with 
honors  at  Yale.  The  father,  himself,  had  taken  him  in 
hand,  to  initiate  him  in  regular  business,  and  he  intended 
from  the  first  to  make  him  a  partner  as  soon  as  he  would  be 
of  age. 

The  moral  training  of  Freddy  would  have  been  considered 
by  all  fashionable  New-Yorkers  as  on  a  par  with  the  rest  of 
his  education.  At  the  knees  of  his  mother  he  had  been 
taught  to  pray,  and  when  a  young  boy  he  seemed  inclined 
to  piety,  as  understood  in  the  Episcopalian  church.  He  reg- 
ularly followed  his  mother  to  divine  service  every  Sunday, 
and  frequently  saw  his  father  kneel,  with  the  rest  of  the  fam- 
ily, in  the  well-known  pew.  At  Sunday  school  he  was  for 
a  long  time  a  regular  attendant,  and  had  partaken  of  the 
sacrament  with  his  mother  on  several  occasions.  If  later, 
during  the  time  he  went  to  the  grammar  school,  he  appeared 
more  lukewarm,  and  often  found  some  pretext  for  not  going 
to  church  on  Sundays  ;  if,  chiefly  during  the  four  years  he 
was  a  student  at  Yale,  he  never  entered  a  church  in  IS'ew 
Haven,  and  all  along  vacation  he  did  his  best  to  go  to  Trinity 
Chapel  as  seldom  as  he  could — had  he  not  constantly  before 


92  LOUISA  KIRKBRIBE. 

liis  eyes  the  moral  uprightness  of  his  father,  to  whom  he 
then  looked  up,  more  than  to  his  mother,  as  an  example 
which  he  ought  to  have  felt  proud  to  imitate  ?  His  father 
respected  religion  outwardly,  but  in  fact  he  had  none,  and 
was  too  busy  to  attend  to  religious  concerns,  even  when 
there  was  question  of  his  immortal  soul.  This  was  true, 
and  Freddy  was  sure  to  follow,  in  that  respect,  the  lead  of 
his  father  rather  than  that  of  his  mother.  But  was  not  the 
conduct  of  Mr.  Kirkbride,  as  a  husband,  as  a  father,  as  a 
business  man,  as  a  citizen,  all  that  could  be  desired  1  And 
if  the  son  had  copied  it  faithfully,  would  he  not  have  sat- 
isfied all  the  requirements  of  modern  society,  nay,  of  what 
is  called  a  truly  moral  community  1 

Unfortunately,  Mr.  Frederick  was  not  so  inclined.  He 
inwardly  despised  the  Christian  admonitions  of  his  mother, 
although,  so  far,  he  never  spoke  roughly  to  her ;  and  when 
earnestly  requested  to  fulfill  some  religious  duty  formerly 
dear  to  him,  he  merely  answered  that  he  was  no  more  a 
baby.  As  to  his  father's  dignified  bearing,  he  felt  a  kind  of 
awe  for  it,  and  was  cunning  enough  to  understand  that  all 
his  future  prospects  in  life  depended  on  securing  his  good 
will,  and,  consequently,  in  appearing  to  chime  in  with  his 
projects  and  arrangements  ;  but  in  his  heart  of  hearts  he 
said  to  himself  ''that  the  life  actually  led  by  his  father 
could  not  suit  a  young  man."  He  was  not,  after  all,  a  poor 
wretch  of  a  boy,  obliged  to  deny  himself  everything  in  order 
to  open  his  way  to  a  competency.  The  road  to  wealth  and 
consequent  enjoyment  had  been  opened  by  a  ''  icliole  line  of 
ancestors^'' — he  would  scarcely  admit  the  chief  claim  to  it 
in  his  father  himself.  He  would  be,  therefore,  a  fool  to  plod 
along  as  if  he  was  a  hod-carrier,  reserving  rest  and  enjoy- 
ment for  the  last  years  of  his  life,  when  he  would  have  lost 
the  keen  sense  required  for  golden  pleasure.  Youth  was 
the  time  for  a  broad  sail  on  the  ocean  of  sensual  adventure 
and  keenly  felt  excitement ;  and  as  he  could  launch  on  it 
directly,  and  without  waiting  for  wind  and  tide,  he  was  fully 
determined  not  to  lose  the  best  part  of  life,  but  to  begin  in 
right  earnest  at  the  first  opportune  moment.     He  would  re- 


FATHER  AND  SON  IN  THE  MANSION  93 

spect  exterior  appearances,  since  his  father  required  it ;  he 
would  be  at  his  desk  every  day,  or  nearly  so ;  he  would 
employ  his  time  in  the  counting-house  in  the  way  best  cal- 
culated to  please  so  unreasonable  a  father ;  it  was  a  great 
sacrifice  of  his  dearest  inclinations,  but  he  had  yet  to  do  it 
for  a  short  time.  Meanwhile,  underhand  he  could  snatch 
many  hidden  pleasures,  and  these  were  the  most  precious, 
as  nothing  is  so  enticing  as  the  mere  sight  of  the  "forbid- 
den fruit."  This  was  the  whole  of  his  philosophy,  and  we 
must  say  that  he  had  been  gradually  brought  to  adopt  it 
by  the  sight  of  what  he  already  knew  of  the  world,  and  by 
the  influence  of  several  friends  further  advanced  than  he 
was  in  the  theory,  but  having  less  opportunities  at  their 
command,  as  they  had  not  before  them  the  prospect  of  re- 
ceiving without  effort  as  large  a  fortune  as  was  sure  to  fall 
to  his  lot.  His  friends^  consequently,  were  not  the  best 
advisers  he  could  have,  yet  he  was  ah^eady,  we  may  say,  a 
slave  to  them.  His  actual  means  of  enjoying  his  dreams  on 
the  spot  were  far  from  being  commensurate  with  his  aspira- 
tions. His  father  gave  him  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
dollars  a  month — $1,500  a  year — for  pocket  money,  and  he 
had  several  horses  and  a  carriage  at  his  disposal ;  but  his 
father  insisted  that  during  business  hours  he  should  be,  at 
least  most  of  the  time,  at  the  counting-house,  except  when 
he  obtained  permission  to  absent  himself  for  a  full  day,  as 
he  had  done  lately,  to  our  knowledge,  for  a  very  worthy  pur- 
pose. 

We  have  lately  seen  that  Mr.  Kirkbride  was  not  altogether 
without  anxiety  with  respect  to  his  son.  Having  all  along 
determined  to  make  him  a  partner  in  the  firm  when  he  would 
reach  his  twenty-second  year,  he  now  hesitated.  The  chief 
cause  of  this  hesitation  was  what  he  had  heard,  and  what  he 
himself  suspected,  of  the  habitual  intercourse  of  his  son  with 
young  spendthrifts  and  sharpers.  Should  the  thing  be  really 
as  he  was  told,  he  would  certainly  delay  the  introduction  of 
Frederick  into  the  concern,  and  oblige  him  to  give  better 
and  surer  proofs  of  steadiness  and  industry.  This  he  was 
determined  to  know,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  he  had  promised 


94  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE, 

his  son  a  talk  about  it  after  fuller  investigations.  Among 
tliose  friends  of  the  young  man,  there  was  one  particularly 
whom  Mr.  Kirkbride  disliked  above  all,  and  he  had  warned 
his  son  against  him  by  name.  It  was  Mr.  James  Friskey. 
This  gentleman  was  at  the  time  acquiring  great  notori- 
ety in  jS'ew  York.  His  inHuence  on  Mr.  Frederick,  as  on 
many  others,  was  extremely  baneful,  and  we  cannot  entu^ely 
avoid  the  mention  of  his  name.  Well,  Mr.  Kirkbride  had 
heard  most  positively  that  his  son  was  one  of  the  numerous 
acquaintances  and  admirers  of  Mr.  Friskey,  and,  moreover, 
that  he  gambled  at  the  stock  exchange,  and  he  had  most 
positively  forbidden  him  the  one  and  the  other.  This  was 
to  be  ascertained  directly,  and  for  this  purpose  he  called 
him  to  his  room  one  evening,  soon  after  dinner,  a  very  short 
time  later  than  the  adventure  on  Sixth  Avenue. 

"My  son,"  said  the  father,  as  soon  as  they  were  both 
seated,  ''  we  must  have  a  serious  conversation  together. 
Not  long  ago,  you  may  remember,  I  advised  you  to  reflect 
seriously  on  some  few  words  I  said  on  your  acquaintances. 
You  pretended  they  were  all  '  honorable  and  gentlemanly 
young  men,'  and  you  spoke  rather  warmly  on  the  subject. 
I  attach  an  extreme  importance  to  this,  because,  as  you  are 
aware,  I  have  all  along  intended  to  start  you  in  business 
with  me,  in  a  few  months  from  this ;  and  the  question  of 
your  friends  is  of  such  a  nature  that  my  project  would 
have  to  be  delayed,  to  my  great  sorrow,  if  I  was  not  per- 
fectly satisfied  on  this  point.  My  other  partners  have  also 
the  right  to  speak  on  the  subject,  and  I  would  not,  for  the 
whole  workl,  see  them  hesitate  to  receive  my  own  son  into 
the  firm,  when  I  propose  to  them  your  admission.  Self- 
respect  absolutely  requires  of  me,  that  my  proposal  should 
not  suffer  the  least  difficulty.  You  understand  this,  I  sup- 
pose, Fred?" 

"Perfectly,  father,"  replied  the  hopeful  young  man; 
"and  I  would  remark  at  first,  that;  if  your  partners  have 
eyes,  they  ought  to  see  how  steady  I  am  at  my  post,  except 
very  rarely  and  for  very  good  reasons  :  and  what  pains  I 
really  take  to  be  useful,  and  to  acquaint  myself  with  every 


FATHER  AND  SOW  IN  TEE  MANSION  95 

branch  of  the  business.  In  fact,  I  cannot  but  take  a  deep 
interest  in  it,  since  my  whole  prospect  in  life  is  deeply  in- 
volved in  it,  independently  of  your  will  and  pleasure,  so 
clearly  expressed  and  so  strongly  and  efficiently  impressed 
upon  me." 

*'I  admit,"  said  Mr.  Kirkbride,  "that  lately  your  con- 
duct in  that  respect  has  been  more  satisfactory  to  me  and 
to  those  gentlemen.  Not  long  ago  they  remarked  it  with 
satisfaction  ;  and  it  really  filled  my  heart  with  pleasure  to 
hear  them  speak  of  it.  I  was  inwardly  glad  of  the  slight 
altercation  we  had  in  the  presence  of  your  mother,  since  it 
is  really  from  that  day  that  there  has  been  a  remarkable 
change  in  you.  But  that  change  has  not  been  unalloyed, 
Fred.  Explain  to  me,  please,  that  strange  affair  of  which 
the  papers  spoke,  when  one  of  my  carriages  was  broken 
with  a  '  broker '  in  it.  I  did  not  yet  ask  you,  because  I 
wanted  to  hear  what  people  said  of  it.  You  were  not  in  the 
carriage,  and  the  papers  spoke  only  of  John  in  connection 
with  the  accident ;  but  when  I  asked  the  fellow  how  it  was 
that  he  was  driving  Mr.  O'Tee,  he  said  he  was  '  driving  you, 
but  fortunately  you  were  not  in  when  the  horses  ran  away.' 
How  does  it  happen  that  you  have  any  relations  with  a 
broker — and  I  object  positively  to  Mr.  O'Tee  in  particular  ; 
and  why  did  you,  after  the  accident,  take  a  hack  and  go  to 
the  stock  exchange,  where  you  spent  a  good  part  of  the 
day  ?  You  did  not  ask  me  leave  of  absence  for  such  a  pur- 
pose, but  you  openly  defied  my  positive  commands." 

Frederick  was  rather  stunned  by  these  abrupt  questions 
from  his  father.  Yet  he  was  not  altogether  unprepared ; 
only  he  had  expected  to  be  called  to  give  some  explanations 
of  the  kind,  directly  after  the  day  the  papers  were  so  loud 
in  their  praises  of  John.  The  joy  of  his  success  at  the  ex- 
change on  that  day  had  been  somewhat  impaired  by  the 
expectation  of  questions  from  the  "old  gentleman,"  and 
he  had  been  heartily  glad  to  see  day  after  day  pass  without 
a  word  from  him  on  the  subject.  Now  that  he  thought  the 
thing  had  blown  over,  he  was  called  up  to  give  categorical 
answers  to  some  pretty  ugly  questions.     Yet  he  was  not 


96  LOUISA  KIBKBBIDE. 

altogether  unprepared  ;  and  his  splendid  talent  for  plausi- 
bility and  self-command  in  deceit  was  to  be  tested  severely 
and  come  out  triumphant. 

"I  acknowledge,  father,"  he  said,  '^that  I  have  diso- 
beyed you,  but  not  to  such  an  extent  as  I  suppose  you  be- 
lieve ;  and  I  promise  you  I  shall  not  do  so  a  second  time. 
I  have  already  been  punished  enough  by  the  anxiety  it  has 
caused  me,  and  I  do  not  intend  to  expose  myself  again  to 
such  a  torment.  These  are  the  simple  facts  in  the  case : 
you  give  me  fifteen  hundred  dollars  to  spend  yearly ;  I 
thought,  when  you  made  me  that  allowance,  that  it  was 
scarcely  enough,  but  to  my  great  surprise,  when  the  year 
was  out  I  found  I  had  spent  only  a  thousand.  The  question 
was.  What  should  I  do  with  the  remaining  five  hundred  ? 
Happening  to  meet  Mr.  O'Tee,  whom  I  scarcely  knew,  he 
spoke  so  eloquently  of  the  immediate  profit  to  be  made  at 
the  exchange  by  a  shrewd  man  in  a  very  short  time — al- 
though he  seemed  to  consider  five  hundred  dollars  a  very 
trifling  sum — that,  partly  carried  away  by  his  babble,  partly 
also,  I  confess,  yielding  to  the  temptation  of  looking  at  the 
inside  of  the  exchange  on  a  day  of  excitement,  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  venture  the  five  hundred  on  stocks,  and  I  arranged 
the  affair  with  Mr.  O'Tee,  so  that  I  could  have  his  advice  if 
I  wanted  it.  I  ought  not  to  have  done  so  after  your  pro- 
hibition, but  the  temptation  w^as  too  strong.  The  accident, 
which  you  know  from  the  papers,  happened ;  and  ought  to 
have  deterred  me  from  going  on  with  my  project ;  but  the 
pretext  I  had  given  you — I  am  now  very  sorry  for  it — obliged 
me  to  be  absent  a  great  part  of  the  day,  and  I  thought  I 
might  as  well  have  a  look  at  the  thing." 

"You  do  not  mean  to  say,  sir,"  directly  interposed  his 
father,  "that  it  was  the  first  time  you  went  there  for  the 
purpose  of  bidding?  I  understand  you  are  not  such  a 
novice  in  stock  operations." 

"I  can  solemnly  assure  you,  father,"  instantly  replied 
Frederick,  "that  I  have  never  been  there  during  business 
hours,  except  on  that  unfortunate  day."  And  this  was 
certainly  true. 


FATHER  AND  SON  IN  THE  MANSION.  97 

*'  And  how  far  did  you  carry  on  your  ventures  1 " 

^'I  was  so  lucky,  sir,  that  I  made  fifteen  hundred  on 
my  five ;  it  was  a  day  of  unusual  excitement.  I  stopped 
there." 

''And  what  proofs  can  you  give  me  of  these  very  strange 
statements  ?    They  conflict  with  several  things  I  heard." 

"  My  only  proof  is  the  only  bank  book  I  ever  had  in  my 
life,  and  which  I  got  on  that  day.  Please  wait  a  moment 
for  me." 

And  Frederick  went  directly  to  his  own  room  and 
brought  back  a  bank  book  certifying  that  on  the  very  day 
of  those  occurrences,  he  had  deposited  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  subject  to  his  call.  But  the  young  gallows-bird  did 
not  state  that  he  kept,  in  a  much  more  secret  place,  another 
record  of  financial  operations,  which  would  have  related  a 
very  different  story.  The  idea  of  making  this  division  of 
his  precious  business  transactions,  had  occurred  to  him  on 
leaving  the  exchange  on  the  day  of  his  success.  Something 
told  him  not  to  have  inscribed  on  the  same  page  the  result 
of  his  skill  at  bidding  apart  on  the  starting  stake  of  five 
hundred  dollars  he  had  previously  put  in  his  pocket,  and 
the  large  innings  on  other  stocks  by  which  he  had  been 
enabled  to  replace  his  father's  bonds.  He  had  even  taken 
the  precaution  to  use  two  different  banks  for  the  purpose. 

To  Mr.  Kirkbride,  who  could  not  but  imagine  that  this 
was  all  unpremeditated,  the  readiness  and  appropriateness 
of  the  answer  appeared  striking.  He  could  no  more  be  so 
confident  in  his  interrogations.  ''  I  will  see,"  he  said,  ''how 
it  is  that  my  infoimation  could  have  been  so  wide  of  the 
mark.  Still,  Fred,  you  have  done  what  I  forbade  you, 
although  you  appear  sorry  for  it  now.  Be  sure  it  is  most 
important  for  your  future  prospects  not  to  engage  in  specu- 
lations of  any  kind." 

"But,  father,"  Fred  put  in,  with  a  kno^\^ng  smile,  "if  I 
do  not,  I  will  not  follow  your  example  closely  ;  you  specu- 
late yourself  on  real  estate." 

"When  you  will  be  of  my  age,  Fred,"  replied  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride, "if  you  are  in  the  same  circumstances  in  which  I  am, 
7 


98  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

yon  can  do  so,  attending  to  all  the  pecnliarities  I  explained 
to  you.  If  I  speculate,  cash  in  hand,  I  never  gamble  ;  but 
a  young  man  ought  not  to  believe  he  can  do  what  I  presume 
to  do  ;  he  would  soon  be  gambling  at  a  furious  rate,  and  it 
is  on  that  account  I  forbid  it  to  you  again  most  positively. 

''I  have  now,  my  son,  another  question  to  put  to  you, 
which  I  hope  will  be  as  satisfactorily  answered  as  the  hrst. 
I  already  see  that  you  have  not  followed  my  general  advice 
about  your  friends,  since  you  have  engaged  in  pecuniary 
transactions  with  a  man  of  the  character  of  O'Tee.  But  I 
hear  that  the  particular  injunction  I  laid  on  you,  never  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  Mr.  Friskey,  has  been  entirely 
neglected.     How  is  that  ? " 

"Be  sure,  father,"  replied  the  son,  ''that  Mr.  O'Tee  has 
never  been  one  of  my  friends.  I  allowed  myself  to  be 
caught  once  by  his  talk  ;  but  I  had  already  resolved,  before 
this  conversation,  to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  him  ;  the 
anxiety  consequent  upon  my  success  at  the  exchange,  when 
I  became  really  nervous  by  the  fear  of  being  found  out  by 
you,  and  of  not  meeting  the  indulgence  I  now  experience 
from  your  kindness,  has  cured  me  entirely  of  that  inclina- 
tion if  I  ever  felt  it."  The  reader  sees  that  Mr.  Frederick 
was  occasionally  moved  by  deep  feelings  of  hlial  affection 
or  dread.  ''With  respect  to  Mr.  Jas.  Friskey,  what  you 
have  heard  of  his  case  is  a  gross  exaggeration,  as  in  the  pre- 
vious one  of  the  stock  exchange.  Since  you  spoke  to  me 
of  him,  I  never  met  him  but  two  or  three  times — let  me  see 
.  .  .  it  was  only  twice ;  once  on  the  sidewalk  of  Broad 
Street,  where  we  spoke  of  quite  indifferent  things  for  four 
or  five  minutes  ;  the  other  time  was  at  a  representation  of 
the  Grand  Duchess^  where  we  happened  to  sit  very  near 
each  other,  and  we  really  indulged  in  a  rather  long  talk, 
but,  I  assure  you,  all  concerning  the  actresses,  and  not  at 
all  about  money." 

"This  again,  Fred,"  said  his  father,  "does  not  tally  with 
what  I  have  heard.  I  will  examine  the  affair  more  care- 
fully, and  meanys^hile  I  must  believe  you.  But,  I  repeat  it 
again,  you  have  been  wrong  to  have  any  kind  of  inter- 


FATHER  AND  SON  IN  THE  MANSION.  99 

course,  were  it  only  twice,  with  such  a  man  as  young  Fris- 
key  ;  I  consider  him  the  most  dangerous  character  in  ^ew 
York,  owing  to  the  vicious  influence  he  exerts  on  young 
people  ;  and  you  must  absolutely  shun  him.  My  partners 
are  strongly  of  the  same  opinion.  They  would  seriously 
object  to  you,  were  you  known  as  a  friend,  nay,  as  an  ac- 
quaintance of  this  young  adventurer." 

"I  will  strictly  follow  your  injunctions,"  said  Frederick, 
who  thought  he  could  then  leave  the  room.  He  was  about  to 
do  so,  when  his  father  added  :  "  Stop  a  moment ;  I  have  not 
quite  finished,"  and  he  began  writing  for  a  couple  of  min- 
utes. "  Here,"  said  he,  "is  the  address  of  three  charitable 
institutions  well  known  to  your  mother.  You  will  please, 
to-morrow  morning,  draw  the  fifteen  hundred  dollars  you 
have  in  your  possession.  Make  three  equal  parts  of  it, 
and  give  one  to  each  of  these  establishments.  You  will,  of 
course,  bring  me  the  receipt  of  the  treasurers ;  those  gen- 
tlemen are  not  unknown  to  me,  as  they  are  the  usual  dis- 
pensers of  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  charities.  You  will  do  well  to 
burn  the  bank  book  after  it  has  been  balanced,  in  order  not 
to  have  about  you  anything  calling  back  to  your  mind  this 
first  transaction  of  yours.  Be  sure  it  is  a  great  service  I 
render  you  in  putting  temptation  out  of  your  way.  Your 
allowance,  as  you  confessed  to  me,  is  more  than  you  want ; 
but  use  it  entire  for  your  own  needs,  and  do  not  apply  any 
part  of  it  to  gambling  again." 

Mr.  Frederick  took  the  paper  of  addresses  from  the  hand 
of  his  father,  bowed  to  him,  and  the  following  day  he 
strictly  "followed  his  injunctions."  It  was,  however,  far 
from  pleasant  to  deprive  himself  of  a  little  sum  acquired 
with  such  sudden  and  precocious  skill.  His  other  balances 
did  not  amount  to  anything,  and  as  he  would  be  obliged  to 
stop  operating  in  Wall  Street  for  some  time  to  come,  and 
show  great  zeal  at  the  counting-house,  his  dreams  of  a  bril- 
liant life  would  have  to  be  postponed — a  prosj^ect  dreary 
enough,  with  the  tastes  he  had  lately  acquired.  What 
reason  could  he  give  to  O'Tee,  to  whom  he  had  sent  a  note 
of  condolence   on  his  mishap?    What  apology  could  he 


100  LOUISA  EIREBRIDE. 

make  to  Mr.  Friskey,  whom  lie  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
seeing  almost  daily  ?    Perplexing  questions  ! 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Kirkbride,  whom  we  have  left  alone,  had 
fallen,  directly  after  Frederick  went  away,  into  a  very 
brown  study  indeed.  My  information,  he  said  to  himself, 
came  from  shrewd  and  observant  people  ;  yet,  if  my  son  is 
in  the  least  truthful,  they  were  most  strangely  mistaken. 
If  they  were  not,  my  son  is  ...  He  did  not  dare  to 
finish  the  phrase  in  his  mind.  Had  he  done  so,  it  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  .  .  .  My  son  is  a  deep-dyed  liar 
and  scoundrel.  It  is  not  very  pleasant  for  a  father  to  use 
such  words  as  these,  even  in  his  mind,  with  respect  to  his 
own  son,  chiefly  when  that  son  is  the  only  one  left  to  per- 
petuate the  family.  Hence,  Mr.  Kirkbride  was  far  from 
happy  at  this  moment.  We  must  leave  him  to  continue 
his  investigations,  in  order  to  see  if,  in  her  happy  ignorance 
of  all  this,  good  Mrs.  Kirkbride  herself  had  not  her  o\vn 
troubles  about  her  boy,  and  did  not,  about  the  same  time, 
come  to  learn  something  equally  unpalatable  to  her. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MOTHEE  A]^D  SON  IN  THEIE  APPEOPKIATE  CHAEACTEES. 

Feedeeick's  mother  had*  an  intimate  friend,  worthy  of 
her,  in  a  certain  Mrs.  Kingsley,  a  devotee,  likewise,  of  Dr. 
Dixon's.  In  the  crowd  of  fashionable  ladies  who  made 
frequent  visits  to  the  house  on  Madison  Avenue,  few  en- 
joyed, to  the  same  degree,  the  familiarity  and  deep-felt 
friendship  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  The  fact  is  that  the  pecu- 
liarities of  her  character  made  it  extremely  difficult  for  her 
to  expand  her  heart  freely  unless  she  found  a  congenial 
soul.  She  was  naturally  too  shy.  Always  exact  to  sacri- 
fice scrupulously  her  tastes  to  the  conventionalities  of  life, 
never,  consequently,  offending  any  one  by  obtruding  her 
inward  and  almost  irresistible  leanings  toward  the  simpli- 
city of  strict  though  unaffected  virtue,  she  reserved,  how- 
ever, all  the  sweetness  of  her  pure  affection  for  the  few 
female  friends  similarly  inclined.  They  alone  knew  her 
thoroughly  ;  all  the  others  liked  her  company,  admired  the 
refined  elegance  of  her  manners,  the  liveliness  of  her  talk,  the 
perfect  naturalness  of  all  her  person  ;  but  they  never  could 
be  the  witnesses  of  that  bloom  of  innocence  and  simple  can- 
dor which  formed  the  peculiar  character  of  that  sweet  lady. 

For  a  few,  and  Mrs.  Kingsley  was  one  of  the  most  favored, 
she  had  no  secret  to  keep,  no  restraint  to  put  on  any  of  her 
feelings.  She  showed  herself  to  them  what  she  was  in  the 
eyes  of  God.  But  Mrs.  Kingsley  was  a  great  deal  more 
observant  and  keen  than  Frederick's  mother ;  and  although 
this  peculiarity  of  her  temper  made  her  occasionally  far  less 
cliaritable  and  sweet  natured  than  her  friend,  yet  she  was 

101 


102  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

not  a  tale-bearer  and  a  gossiping  story-monger,  as  is  too 
often  the  case  with  sharp-sighted  women.  She  had  a  con- 
science, and  considered  slander  as  a  heinous  sin,  and  re- 
proved herself  severely  when  her  inclination  to  be  hard 
on  other  people  warped  her  judgment  and  sharpened  her 
tongue.  Mrs.  Kirkbride  received  a  formal  visit  from  her 
about  this  time,  and  the  very  first  words  showed  clearly  that 
the  thing  was  serious. 

'^My  dear  friend,"  she  said,  ''I  hope  you  will  not  blame 
me  for  what  I  am  going  to  tell  you,  but  we  know  each  other 
so  well  that  we  can  speak  in  all  sincerity,  and  you  must  be 
persuaded  that  I  have  no  motive  but  that  of  sincere  friend- 
ship ;  I  would  not  open  my  lips  on  the  subject  to  any  one 
but  you.  Please  watch  your  son  ;  I  am  afraid  he  will  give 
you  trouble." 

Poor  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  whose  heart  was  already  full  of  a 
motherly  anxiety  for  the  unworthy  young  scamp,  began  to 
turn  red,  and  tremble  all  over.  ^'  My  dear  Mrs.  Kingsley," 
she  exclaimed,  ''what  is  the  terrible  news  you  bring  me? 
Speak  out,  and  break  my  heart,  if  it  must  be  so  ;  I  know  that 
you  are  a  friend,  and  that  you  would  not  pain  me  uselessly." 

''I  have  boys  also,"  said  her  visitor,  ''and  I  know  how 
difficult  it  is  to  keep  them  in  the  right  path  ;  but  if  any  of 
them  was  acting  as  your  son  does,  I  should  feel  really 
thankful  to  you  if  you  came  to  open  my  eyes  on  the  subject. 
This  is  what  I  have  to  tell  you :  My  husband's  business, 
as  you  know,  consists  only  in  the  administration  of  his  real 
estate.  He  owns  several  dwelling-houses  in  the  respectable 
quarters  of  the  city.  Being  unwilling  to  trust  agents,  and 
having,  besides,  nothing  else  to  do,  he  rents  them,  and  col- 
lects the  money  himself.  A  month  ago  he  received  applica- 
tion for  a  nice  suite  of  apartments  in  a  house  in  Fifty-ninth 
Street,  not  far  from  the  entrance  to  the  Park,  A  single 
lady,  with  a  female  servant,  wished  to  have  them,  the  rent 
did  not  offer  any  difficulty,  and  as  to  her  moral  character, 
she  had  references.  She  was  young  and  pretty ;  said  she 
was  an  artist,  and  painted  flowers  and  birds.  Everything 
appeared  so  respectable  and  regular  that  my  husband  did 


MOTHER  AND  SON.  103 

not  even  suspect  anything  was  wrong.  He  says  he  has  often 
to  be  very  particular  in  those  transactions,  as  the  morality 
of  the  people  is  not  what  it  was  twenty  years  ago ;  but  in 
this  case  he  could  not  suppose  anything  was  not  perfectly 
right.  Imagine  his  surprise  when,  a  couple  of  weeks  after 
the  lady  had  come  in,  the  very  respectable  and  Christian 
family  who  occupy  the  remainder  of  the  house,  declared  to 
my  husband  that  they  would  have  to  leave  if  the  other  occu- 
pant was  allowed  to  stay.  Often  in  the  afternoon  a  young 
man,  unknown  to  them,  drove  to  the  door  in  a  barouche  or  a 
sleigh,  according  to  the  weather,  took  the  young  lady  out, 
and  they  returned  sometimes  late  in  the  evening,  to  have  a 
supper,  probably,  to  which  other  young  men  were  evidently 
invited  or  allowed  to  come  freely.  Occasionally  these  even- 
ing parties  were  prolonged  pretty  late  in  the  night,  and  the 
noise,  at  times  boisterous,  reached  their  own  apartments  and 
annoyed  them.  They  had  young  daughters,  and  they  could 
not  remain,  to  their  great  regret,  as  the  jjlace  and  the  neigh- 
borhood suited  them.  My  husband  begged  of  them  to  have 
patience  for  a  few  days,  and  he  would  try  to  find  out  Avho 
that  young  man  might  be.  He  finally  ascertained  that  it 
was  your  own  son,  and  he  told  me  the  whole  story  that  I 
might  report  it  to  you." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  struck,  as  if  with  a  dagger ;  her  face 
changed  color  every  moment ;  and  she  was,  at  first,  per- 
fectly unable  to  say  a  word.  Finally,  recovering  herself  a 
moment : 

"The  story  is  very  ugly,"  she  said.  "Yet,  my  dear  Mrs. 
Kingsley,  it  seems  to  me  scarcely  credible  ;  the  young  lady, 
with  her  talent,  can  very  well  support  herself  ;  and  in  such 
cases  the  prospect  of  marriage  alone  can  attract  a  young 
woman." 

' '  Here  you  are  mistaken, ' '  replied  her  friend.  ' '  My  hus- 
band has  ascertained  positively  that  the  young  person  is 
not  an  artist,  or  does  not  live  on  art.  She  receives  scarcely 
any  visit  during  the  whole  day,  and  is  most  of  the  time  at 
her  piano,  yet  does  not  give  any  music  lessons.  Mr.  Kings- 
ley  is  so  fully  persuaded  of  the  justice  of  the  complaint, 


104  LOUISA  EIRKBEIDE. 

that,  yesterday,  he  gave  notice  to  his  single  lodger  to  quit 
within  a  week,  and  he  is  sure  that  she  is  entirely  supported 
by  your  son,  who  must  spend  a  good  deal  of  money  on  her." 

''But  his  allowance  is  so  small  that  he  cannot  do  it," 
retorted  poor  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

"So  much  the  worse!"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Kingsley,  who, 
shortly  after,  left  her  friend  overwhelmed  with  sorrow  and 
shame. 

Left  alone,  she  found  herself  in  a  sea  of  perplexity.  Her 
conscience  told  her  to  immediately  acquaint  her  husband 
with  all  these  particulars ;  and,  had  she  done  so,  this  story 
would  have  taken  a  sudden  turn  quite  different  from  the 
one  we  shall  have  to  relate.  Mr.  Kirkbride  would  have 
been  fully  enlightened  on  the  conduct  of  his  son,  and 
known  the  worst  at  once  ;  then  he  would  not  have  hesitated 
a  moment  to  take  severe  and  decisive  measures.  But  the 
love  of  her  son,  yet  deep  in  her  heart,  and  her  complete 
ignorance  of  the  scene  of  duplicity  acted  so  lately  by  the 
miserable  young  man  with  his  father,  made  the  lenient  mo- 
ther incline  to  have  first  a  conversation  with  Frederick,  and 
then  reveal  the  whole  to  his  father  or  not,  according  to  cir- 
cumstances. 

Very  opportunely,  the  day  after,  the  young  man  came  to 
lunch  with  her  at  two  o'clock.  He  had  brought  a  message 
from  Mr.  Kirkbride,  and  his  conduct  had  been  so  exem- 
plary for  the  last  few  days,  that  he  had  been  told  he  need 
not  come  back  to  the  counting-house,  and  might  keep  com- 
pany to  his  mother  in  a  little  expedition  a  few  miles  out  of 
New  York,  of  which  she  had  been  speaking  for  at  least  a 
week.  They,  therefore,  lunched  together,  and  started  di- 
rectly after  in  an  open  carriage,  as  the  afternoon  was  mild 
and  very  pleasant. 

The  conversation  began  from  almost  the  very  door ;  the 
driver — "  honest ' '  John  himself — took  them  for  a  few  blocks 
through  Fifty-ninth  Street,  and  Mrs.  Kirkbnde  could  not 
contain  herself  any  longer  ;  but,  in  a  low  voice,  on  account 
of  John,  she  said,  with  evident  emotion  : 

"  Is  it  possible,  Fred,  that,  so  near  the  house  where  your 


MOTHER  AND  SON.  105 

mother  spends  nearly  her  whole  life,  there  is  another  woman 
that  engrosses  your  attention,  and,  I  am  afraid,  corrupts 
your  heart?" 

''What  do  you  mean,  mother?"  replied  Fred,  in  a  voice 
lower  still. 

"  You  ought  to  understand  me,  my  son,  since  you  so  often 
drive  through  this  very  street  for  very  unholy  purposes." 

''Do  you  mean,  mother,  the  visits  I  sometimes  pay  to 
Miss  De  Witt,  who,  in  fact,  lives  very  near  this  spot?" 

"  I  do  not  know  her  name,  sir,  nor  do  I  wish  to  know  it ; 
but  I  should  like  to  hear  from  you  how  you  find  the  money 
that  you  spend  on  her." 

"Indeed,  my  dear  mother,"  repKed  the  truthful  young 
heir,  with  a  perfect  look  of  injured  innocence  ;  "  there  are 
some  very  bad  tongues  in  the  world.  Miss  De  Witt  is 
above  low  calumny;  she  supports  herself,  and  doesn't  need 
my  help." 

' '  How  does  she  dispose  of  her  pictures,  if  nobody  goes  to 
buy  them?" 

"She  disposes  of  them  as  real  artists  do;  she  does  not 
need  to  convert  her  rooms  into  a  shop ;  but,  every  two  or 
three  months,  she  sends  them  to  retail  dealers,  who  appre- 
ciate them  enough  to  pay  handsomely  for  them.  Some- 
times, a  few  friends  she  has  take  from  her  the  choice  bits. 
You  remember  the  pair  of  doves,  that  I  brought  home  three 
months  ago,  and  that  you  admired  so  much  ?  They  are  from 
her.  I  was  flush  of  money  at  the  time,  and  made  her  con- 
sent to  receive  thirty  dollars  for  them.  Unfortunately,  I 
cannot  patronize  her  as  often  as  I  would  wish." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  perfectly  silenced  by  these  very  nat- 
ural explanations,  and  she  had  herself  remarked  to  her 
friend,  that  the  young  lady  might  support  herself  by  her 
art.  There  was,  however,  something  very  improper  in  those 
frequent  visits  of  young  men  to  a  young  lady,  which  baffled 
Mrs.  Kirkbride,  and  which  she  could  not  reconcile  with  her 
ideas  of  decency. 

"How  is  it,  Freddy,  that  you  go  so  often  to  see  her?" 
said  she.     "Have  you  any  intention  of  marrying  her  ?" 


106  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

"Bless  you,  no!  mother,"  he  replied;  "I  am  too  young 
to  think  of  it,  and  am  not  settled  in  life — you  know  that 
yourself.  But,  evidently,  mother,  you  are  not  acquainted 
with  the  present  ways  of  New  York ;  most  of  the  young 
men  who  go  to  see  her  like  me,  are  artists  like  her,  and 
thus  form  a  kind  of  brotherhood  whose  centre  she  deserves 
to  be.  I  do  not  know  how  I  have  been  admitted  among 
them  ;  perhaps  not  my  actual,  but  my  prospective  wealth, 
opened  for  me  a  door  which  otherwise  would  have  been 
closed.  Of  the  degrading  views  of  such  a  society,  which 
some  of  your  friends  have  suggested,  believe  me,  mother, 
there  is  actually  no  reality.  The  conversation  there  is  al- 
ways refined,  and,  if  some  of  us  were  to  feel  inclined  to 
rather  free  talk,  the  presence  of  the  lady  is  enough  to  close 
his  lips  and  restrain  his  tongue.  Now  you  know  as  much 
of  it  as  I  do.  I  hope,  mother,  that,  after  this  explanation, 
you  will  not  imagine  that  Miss  De  Witt  is  my  mistress,  and 
that  I  steal  the  money  on  which  she  lives  ;  for,  I  am  very 
sorry  to  say  so,  this  was  at  the  bottom  of  your  first  insinu- 
ations, and  if  I  did  not  know  the  simplicity  and  goodness 
of  my  dear  mother's  heart,  I  should  really  feel  indignant 
that  I  had  been  suspected  of  such  things.  My  indignation 
I  reserve  for  your  friends — for  you  I  can  have  only  feelings 
of  love." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  would  have  cried  with  joy  and  tender- 
ness had  she  not  been  in  an  open  carriage,  and  dreaded  that 
John  might  hear  anything  of  what  w^as  said.  Yet  as  she 
had  not,  for  a  long  time,  seen  her  soon  so  visibly  moved  by 
what  she  thought  to  be  respect  and  filial  piety  toward  her, 
she  made  up  her  mind  to  improve  the  opportunity,  and 
relieve  herself  of  a  heavy  burden  which  had  long  weighed 
heavily  on  her. 

"You  see,  my  dear  Freddy,"  she  said,  "a  Christian 
mother  knows  that  religion  is  the  only  thing  which  can 
refrain  a  young  man  from  running  wild,  and  when  she  sees 
no  devotional  feeling  of  any  kind  in  her  children,  she  dreads 
the  natural  consequences,  and  fears  every  day  to  discover 
disgraceful  excesses.     I  am  truly  glad  that  my  suspicions 


MOTHER  AND  SON. 


107 


were  imfonnded  ;  but  I  shall  never  rest  happy  until  I  see 
my  son  again  give  some  proof  of  that  sense  of  religion  which 
was  so  keen  in  his  youth,  and  which  I  had  fostered  with 
such  motherly  care." 

''Mother,"  earnestly  retorted  the  dutiful  son,  ''I  had 
really  thought  of  it  before  this  conversation.  My  father 
may  have  told  you  that  lately  I  have  been  more  sedate  than 
before,  and  more  attentive  to  my  duties  at  the  counting- 
desk.  Lately  I  have  reflected  much  on  the  importance  of  a 
serious  life,  chiefly  since  I  am  so  soon  going  to  be  of  age  ; 
and  I  am  glad  to  announce  to  you  that  I  intend  henceforth 
to  accompany  you  to  church  on  Sundays,  as  I  did  for- 
merly." 

''God  be  praised  !  "  exclaimed  the  excellent  mother,  and 
she  could  not  retain  her  tears  ;  only  she  kept  from  sobbing 
aloud,  and  none  but  her  son  could  perceive  how  her  eyes 
and  cheeks  were  wet. 

Of  course  the  wretched  boy  was  merely  playing  a  comedy. 
He  was  so  much  afmid  that  his  father  should  know  his  de- 
portment in  Fifty-ninth  Street,  that  he  had  fully  deter- 
mined to  turn  hypocrite,  and  spend  an  hour  each  Sunday 
in  Trinity  Chapel  for  the  apparent  purpose  of  prayer. 

Thus  in  the  splendid  mansion  of  the  Kirkbrides  there 
were  the  seeds  of  deep  trouble  and  perplexity,  for  all  the 
members  of  the  family.  Vice  and  deceit  had  crept  in 
through  the  unbridled  passions  of  a  young  man,  and  the 
most  worthy  of  fathers  and  mothers  had  to  bear  the  conse- 
quences of  it  all.  They  were  soon  to  see  their  happiness 
totally  marred  by  fears,  anxieties,  and  the  anticipation  of 
the  future  destruction  of  all  their  hopes — in  the  father,  by 
the  probable  downfall  of  his  house — in  the  mother,  by  the 
moral  loss  of  her  only  son. 


CHAPTER  VIL 

THE  FAMILY  I:N^   THE   COTTAGE. 

The  winter  being  nearly  over,  and  the  weather  occasion- 
ally very  pleasant,  the  shanty  in  the  sunken  lot  appeared 
less  dismal ;  nay,  on  bright  days  looked  almost  picturesque 
and  attractive.  On  some  mornings,  when  a  wreath  of  gray 
smoke  arose  from  the  single  chimney,  and  went  straight  up 
through  the  blue  atmosphere  ;  when  the  sun,  already  rising 
earlier,  struck  the  clean  glass  of  the  only  window  in  front 
with  dazzling  rays  of  white  light ;  when  the  humble  path 
leading  to  the  mansion,  and  so  well  known  to  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride,  already  showed  two  slender  lines  of  green  turf,  moist 
with  dew,  and  profusely  sprinkled  with  minute  diamonds, 
a  man  tired  of  the  bustle  of  crowded  streets  would  have 
imagined  he  should  be  sure  of  finding  happiness  in  this 
unpretentious  dwelling. 

Yet  these  poor  quarters  were,  after  all,  very  diflPerent  from 
the  numerous  lofty,  luxurious  rooms  and  halls  of  the  proud 
palace  in  their  immediate  neighborhood.  If  any  of  the 
million  inhabitants  of  New  York  had  been  given  the  choice 
of  accepting  the  ownership  of  the  one  or  the  other,  the  man 
preferring  the  shanty  would  have  been  declared  a  fool  by 
the  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  ninety-nine  others.  Still,  it  must  be  confessed  that 
Julia  had  introduced  into  the  place  neatness  and  order.  In 
the  outer  room  had  been  ranged  to  the  best  advantage  the 
greater  part  of  the  furniture  sent  by  Mrs.  Kirkbride :  the 
stove  nearly  in  the  middle  of  the  apartment ;  a  lounge 
along  one  of  the  sides,  pushed  into  a  corner ;  a  small  press 

108 


THE  FAMILY  IN  THE  COTTAGE.  109 

in  another  angle,  just  opposite  to  the  lonnge ;  a  table  large 
enough  for  the  whole  family  to  dine  with  one  or  two  friends, 
and  several  chairs  of  various  patterns  and  sizes.  The  only 
window  which  gave  light  to  the  room  was  shaded  by  a  cur- 
tain of  white  muslin,  with  a  greenish  border.  Julia  took 
good  care  to  have  it  always  look  clean  and  fresh,  although 
God  knows  it  was  not  new.  In  Mrs.  0' Byrne's  bedroom,  a 
small  table,  at  the  head  of  the  bed,  covered  with  a  white 
napkin,  an  arm-chair  with  which  we  are  already  acquainted, 
and  a  few  religious  prints  good  Mr.  Doyle  had  given  to  the 
family,  formed  the  whole  convenience  and  adornment.  On 
the  same  side  of  the  shanty  a  small  dark  room,  just  large 
enough  to  contain  a  bed  and  a  chair,  the  walls  and  floor 
perfectly  clean  but  bare,  if  we  except  a  crucifix,  hung  to  a 
nail  by  Con,  was  the  little  place  where  Julia  retired  at  night 
when  her  mother  did  not  want  her.  With  the  lounge,  two 
chairs,  and  a  mattress.  Con  made  himself  a  bed  every  even- 
ing in  the  outer  room  ;  and  it  was  there  his  father  was 
asleep  with  him  when  George  and  Schwitz  made  that  raid 
whose  consequences  are  not  yet  fully  developed  at  this 
stage  of  our  story.  This  is  the  background  of  the  land- 
scape, where  we  must  see  our  friends  moving  and  acting. 

At  the  very  end  of  February,  the  day  had  been  so  fine 
that  Mrs.  0' Byrne  had  dared  for  the  first  time  to  leave  her 
cottage  with  her  daughter,  and  take  a  walk  in  the  adjoin- 
ing Park.  She  had  spoken  of  it  several  times  to  her  hus- 
band, who  would  not  be  surprised  to  find  her  absent  when 
he  came,  and  thus  she  protracted  her  ramble  till  late  in  the 
evening.  She  felt  delighted  with  the  green  lawns  and  the 
budding  shrubs,  with  the  early  soft  song  of  a  few  blue- 
birds already  arrived  from  the  south,  and  with  the  well- 
known  shrill  notes  of  a  little  wren  who  dwelt  evidently  in 
that  part  of  the  grounds,  since  she  had  been  heard  a  few 
days  before  around  the  shanty,  where,  perhaps,  she  would 
build  her  nest  when  spring  came. 

Mr.  0' Byrne,  at  five  o'clock,  left  his  work  in  the  Park,  and 
at  the  very  entrance  met  his  son,  who  was  coming  from 
farther  up  Eighth  Avenue.     They  walked  together  to  the 


110  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

shanty,  and  not  finding  tlie  women  in,  they  had  to  wait 
for  them.  When  they  entered,  nothing  was  alive  in  the 
house  except  a  kettle  of  water,  which  was  singing  shrilly  on 
the  stove.  The  old  man  sat  on  a  chair  and  lit  his  pipe  ; 
Con  stretched  himself  on  the  lounge. 

"  So  I  am  glad  to  hear,  sonny,  that  your  boss  has  been 
rather  kind  to  you  to-day ;  we  must  make  hay  while  the  sun 
shines." 

''  Yes,  father  ;  besides  my  six  shillings,  he  gave  me,  with 
a  kind  of  smile,  a  good-sized  plug  of  tobacco,  which  I  don't 
use,  but  which  will  please  Mr.  Doyle  next  time  he  comes." 

' '  And  your  companions — are  they  becoming  more  socia- 
ble?" 

^'Do  you  know,  father,  the  Sassanaghs  are  the  same,  and 
there' s  very  little  good  feeling  spent  on  both  sides.  But  the 
Irish  seem  to  be  more  fond  of  me  than  ever  since  the  day  I 
gave  the  signal  to  Tom  O'Neill ;  and  I  have  found  other  fel- 
lows, Germans,  I  think,  who  appear  very  desirous  of  becom- 
ing acquainted  with  me,  which  Avas  not  the  case  before.  You 
see,  when  we  work  we  don't  talk,  but  at  midday  we  have 
an  hour's  rest,  and  I  used,  after  taking  my  dinner,  which 
scarcely  lasted  fifteen  minutes,  to  stretch  myself  on  the 
ground  and  sleep.  Now  I  cannot  do  so  any  more.  They 
crowd  around  me  ;  and,  in  fact,  I  prefer  to  talk  with  them, 
because  I  thus  become  acquainted  with  the  country  ;  and  it 
is  indeed  a  queer  country,  so  different  from  Ireland." 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  O' Byrne,  ''let  me  hear  first  what 
the  Irish  say,  just  to  know  if  they  belong  to  the  right 
stock." 

''As  to  that,"  Con  replied,  "they  are  all  Fenians,  like 
Mr.  Doyle.  It  seems,  father,  very  few  are  of  your  way  of 
thinking." 

"Fenians  ! "  exclaimed  the  old  man  ;  "  I  hope  they  do  not 
try  to  make  one  of  you  ? " 

"They  have  tried  for  some  time  ;  but  as  I  knew  it  would 
not  please  you,  I  always  turned  the  affair  into  a  joke  ;  and 
you  know  that  with  the  Irish  a  good  joke  is  sure  to  make 
them  laugh,  and  stop  their  tongue  ;   so  they  do  not  annoy 


THE  FAMILY  IN  THE  COTTAGE.  HI 

me  any  longer  with  their  urgent  requests,  and  we  continue 
to  be  very  friendly — particularly  since  tlie  formation  of  our 
^mutual  aid  society,'  to  which  most  of  them  belong." 

^'With  their  Fenianism,"  said  the  old  gentleman,  "do 
they  continue  at  least  to  be  Christians  in  this  strange  coun- 
try ?    You  know  the  young  men  here  better  than  I  do." 

''Of  this,  father,  I  am  sure,"  replied  Con.  "They  seem 
to  be  as  firm  as  in  the  old  country.  There  is  no  fear  that 
any  one  of  them  will  turn  Protestant.  They  all  live  in  the 
neighborhood  of  some  church,  where  most  of  them  go,  I 
am  certain,  on  Sundays.  As  to  any  more  precise  informa- 
tion, I  have  nothing  to  say,  as  I  follow  the  advice  you  have 
often  given  me,  not  to  spy  into  the  conduct  of  others,  and  to 
be  always  persuaded  that  they  are  all  right,  when  I  have  no 
proof  to  the  contrary." 

"That's  right,"  said  Mr.  O' Byrne,  "and  this  is  enough 
with  regard  to  our  countrymen  ;  but  I  am  more  afraid  for 
you  of  the  other  men  who  work  with  you.  I  am  particu- 
larly anxious  to  hear  what  those  Germans,  who  seem  to 
have  taken  a  liking  for  you,  said  and  did  in  the  intercourse 
you  had  with  them." 

"They  said  more  than  they  did,  father,"  replied  the  son, 
' '  and,  indeed,  they  puzzle  me  a  great  deal  more  than  the 
Irish.  If  they  are  sincere,  they  are  our  great  friends  ;  but 
if  they  are  knaves,  then,  indeed,  God  help  us  !  Most  of  them 
came  to  this  country  in  1848,  or  shortly  after,  and  Germany 
shipped  to  America  her  exiles  when  famished  Ireland  was 
compelled  to  send  us  adrift.  The  way  I  became  acquainted 
with  them  was  this  :  When  I  had  just  finished  swallowing 
my  dinner,  a  few  days  ago,  one  of  them  came  near  me,  sat 
down,  and  said  :  '  Is  it  true  you  were  one  of  those  who  were 
attacked  in  a  shanty  the  other  night  V — '  Yes,'  said  I ;  '  and 
it  was  a  treacherous  attack.' — 'It  was,'  he  replied,  'and 
those  wretched  Orangemen  have  no  right  to  ill-treat  the 
poor ;  but  you  have  answered  them  in  the  proper  way.' 
'  We  are  ready  for  others,  if  they  come  again,'  said  I,  '  for 
although  we  are  poor,  we  have  strong  arms  and  stout  hearts.' 
'  That  is  the  way  to  talk,'  he  said,  '  but  the  poor  must  com- 


112  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

bine,  if  they  wish  to  obtain  their  rights.  The  laws  of  soci- 
ety have  been  made  for  the  benefit  of  rich  knaves,  and  a 
great  many  things  have  to  be  changed  before  we  can  live  in 
peace.'  I  was  going  to  answer,  when  he  drew  from  his 
pocket  a  small  printed  page,  and  left  me.  I  saw  him  go  to 
a  group  of  other  Germans,  to  whom  he  spoke,  and  I  had 
scarcely  read  his  paper — which  I  confess  I  did  not  under- 
stand—when the  bell  rang  for  work. 

' '  The  day  after,  at  dinner  time,  two  others,  with  the  first, 
came  to  me  and  began  to  talk.  I  was  anxious,  from  the 
start,  to  know  how  far  I  could  trust  them,  so  I  said,  '  You 
speak  of  combining,  without  knowing  who  I  am,  and  I  am 
as  ignorant  of  you  as  you  are  of  me.  You  are  not  aware, 
perhaps,  that  I  am  a  Catholic,  and  maybe  you  are  yourselves 
Protestants.' — 'Your  words,  my  friend,'  said  one  of  them — 
not  the  one  who  first  spoke  to  me — '  show,  indeed,  that  you 
do  not  know  us.  Religion  is  not  concerned  in  the  least  in 
our  projects  ;  each  one  can  follow  his  own  conscience,  and 
we  welcome  the  sincere  Catholic  as  well  as  any  other.' — '  I 
am  glad  of  that,'  I  replied,  '  for  if  it  had  been  an  obstacle, 
there  would  be  an  end  of  it.' — '  You  may  be  perfectly  easy 
on  that  account,'  the  same  man  said  ;  '  we  find,  in  this  coun- 
try, the  majority  of  the  poor  are  of  your  religion,  and  it  is 
for  the  poor  that  we  work,  whatever  may  be  their  creed.' 
This  was  all  right  and  fair,  was  it  not,  father  ? " 

'' Certainly,  my  son,"  answered  the  old  man  ;  '4t  is  good 
that  our  holy  religion  should  not  be  interfered  with  in  any 
case  whatever ;  but  those  people  seem  to  have  no  religion 
at  all ;  and  I  always  suspect  men  of  that  stamp.  Was  this 
the  whole  conversation  on  that  day  ? " 

''It  was,  or  nearly  so;  and  in  parting  they  gave  me  a 
small  pamphlet  which  I  have  kept.  Here  it  is  ;  they  made 
me  promise  to  go,  next  Sunday  evening,  to  a  certain  place 
in  Greenwich  Street,  where  they  have  their  usual  talk  and 
arrangements." 

Then  the  father  and  son  began  to  look  at  the  pamphlet ; 
Con  undertook  to  read  it ;  but  they  could  not  make  much 
more  of  it  than  he  had  of  the  page  given  him  the  first  day. 


THE  FAMILY  IN  THE  COTTAGE.  113 

They  had  just  gone  through  nearly  half  of  it,  when  the 
voice  of  Julia  was  heard  at  the  door. 

Con  stood  up,  opened  the  cottage,  and  gave  his  hand  to 
his  mother,  whom  the  young  girl  supported  on  the  other 
side.  The  old  lady  appeared  smiling  between  her  two  chil- 
dren, and  the  first  thing  she  did  was  to  take  off  her  hood 
and  ask  for  a  seat,  as  she  felt  a  little  fatigued.  ''Here, 
mother,"  said  Con,  and  he  led  her  to  the  lounge  and  helped 
his  sister  to  lay  her  gently  on  the  old  piece  of  furniture, 
to  prop  her  head  up  with  a  couple  of  pillows,  and  cover  her 
with  Julia's  shawl. 

''Now,  mother,  rest  yourself,"  said  the  good  girl,  all  in  a 
flurry  ;  "  I  must  be  up  and  prepare  the  supper  ;  father  and 
Con  must  have  a  dreadful  appetite."  And  she  brought  out 
the  tea  things  from  the  old  press ;  the  water  was  boiling 
gently  ;  a  cup  of  warm  tea  could  be  ready  in  two  minutes. 
Con  brought  the  table  to  the  middle  of  the  floor ;  a  clean 
napkin  was  spread  on  it,  and  we  need  not  mention  in  detail 
the  various  pieces  of  crockery,  belonging  formerly  to  the 
great  house,  and  destined  to  be  used  that  evening  by  poorer 
but  evidently  happier  people.  Eggs  sent  that  day  for  the 
sick  old  lady  by  one  of  the  neighbors,  sweet  butter  by  an- 
other good  woman  who  had  a  couple  of  cows,  fresh  cheese 
of  goat's  milk  which  came  from  another  quarter,  and, 
flnally,  some  slices  of  cold  meat  and  bread  purchased  from 
the  earnings  of  the  family,  were  to  be  the  bill  of  fare,  ac- 
companied this  time  with  tender  family  affection,  and  a 
heartfelt  joy,  such  as  is  not  to  be  found  at  the  end  of  the 
long  lists  of  good  things  furnished  in  the  best  eating- 
houses. 

When  everything  was  ready,  Mrs.  0' Byrne  wanted  to 
rise.  "No,  mother,"  said  Con,  "you  must  be  really  tired 
by  so  long  a  walk.  You  will  eat  as  you  are,  and  talk  with 
us."  Then  he  went  to  his  mother's  room,  took  the  small 
table  we  already  know  so  well,  placed  it  at  her  side,  and 
Julia  brought  from  the  table  in  the  middle  of  the  room 
what  she  knew  her  mother  liked.  Then  all,  after  a  word 
of  prayer  to  God,  began  to  satisfy  a  traly  keen  appetite. 
8 


114  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

''Now,  mother, "  said  tlie  good  son,  ''let  us  not  be  in  too 
great  a  hurry  ;  your  first  walk  must  have  been  interesting 
to  you.  Tell  us  what  you  think  of  it,  and  how  you  feel 
after  it.  Supper  here  must  not  be  as  my  dinner  every  day, 
a  gulping  down  wdthout  a  word  to  any  one." 

"You  are  right  there,  and  it  is  what  I  like,"  answered 
Mrs.  O' Byrne ;  "  but  since  I  came,  you  have  already  talked 
enough,  and  not  allowed  your  father  to  say  a  word." 

Julia  burst  into  a  laugh  which  became  contagious,  and, 
strange  to  say,  was  indulged  in  by  the  very  culprit,  who 
appeared  without  shame. 

"Don't  be  too  hard  on  him,  Honor  ah,"  said  Mr.  0' Byrne ; 
"the  boy  is  so  full  of  many  things  he  has  done  lately,  that 
he  cannot  contain  himself,  and  must  out  on  every  occasion. 
Yet  I  cannot  say  that  I  am  much  displeased  with  him,  and 
I  am  certainly  of  his  opinion  ;  I  am  as  anxious  as  he  is  him- 
self to  hear  from  you  how  you  feel  after  your  excursion." 

"Oh,  I  feel  perfectly  happy  at  this  moment,"  said  the 
good  mother,  "because  I  have  enjoyed  such  a  pleasant  walk 
with  my  dear  Julia,  and  I  find  on  returning  such  a  husband 
and  such  a  son." 

"But  have  you  had  any  adventures  by  the  way  ?"  asked 
the  old  man. 

"Plenty,"  she  said,  "and  very  pleasant  ones.  First,  it 
was  for  me  a  grand  adventure  to  have  the  freedom  of  such 
beautiful  grounds.  At  home,  when  we  can  look  through  a 
strong  iron  gate  at  the  inside  of  some  great  lord' s  park,  we 
gape  and  think  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  like  it.  But 
no  one  except  the  intimate  friends  of  the  rich  family  can 
walk  inside  and  examine  everything  at  leisure.  Here,  at 
our  own  door,  we  have  an  immense  pleasure  domain,  which 
belongs  to  us  if  it  belongs  to  anybody.  As  it  was  the  first 
time  I  ever  saw  it,  I  could  not  contain  myself,  and  I  must 
have  said  many  foolish  things,  which  Julia,  I  am  afraid, 
will  be  wicked  enough  to  report  to  you.  I  felt  I  was  reviv- 
ing, the  air  was  so  mild,  the  gentle  wind  so  full  of  sweet 
odors  without  any  apparent  cause,  since  there  were  not  yet 
any  flowers,  or  very  few ;  and  everything  we  saw  was  so 


THE  FAMILY  IN  THE  COTTAGE.  115 

agreeable  to  the  eyes,  that  often  we  stopped  and  seated  our- 
selves on  the  numerous  benches  placed  all  around,  merely 
to  look  at  the  cattle,  at  the  sheep,  chiefly  at  the  swans  on 
the  Jake,  and  at  the  beautiful  horses,  driving  people  richer 
than  we  are,  but  not  so  happy,  I  am  sure.  How  is  it,  Mr. 
O' Byrne,  that  you,  who  haj^pen  to  spend  all  your  days  in 
that  splendid  garden,  scarcely  ever  told  me  anything  of  its 
beauty  V  And  the  old  lady  looked  at  him  to  hear  what  he 
would  say;  she  expected  a  frank  acknowledgment  of  his 
dullness  of  feeling  and  appreciation. 

''The  truth  is,"  answered  Mr.  0' Byrne,  ''that  my  eyes 
are  not  so  keen  as  yours,  because,  I  suppose,  I  have  to  do 
something  more  than  looking ;  but,  Honorah,  my  dear,  I 
knew  that  the  place  was  beautiful,  only  what  good  would  it 
have  done  you,  when  you  were  sick,  to  excite  in  you  a  wish 
which  you  could  not  satisfy  ?  This  was  my  chief  reason 
for  saying  very  little  of  the  Park."  A  very  good  one,  no 
doubt,  showing  more  real,  refined  feeling  in  Mr.  O' Byrne 
than  there  is  in  many  rich  people. 

"So  far,"  continued  the  old  man,  "we  have  heard  no 
adventures,  only  a  description  of  what  we  knew  already. 
It  seems  to  me  you  could  not  be  so  long  in  the  Park  with- 
out meeting  some  one,  and  falling  in  with  something  more 
than  ordinary." 

"We  did,"  replied  the  old  lady.  "We  met  with  a  very 
nice  young  gentleman,  but  as  he  talked  chiefly  to  Julia,  she 
will  have  to  relate  the  story  to  you." 

"  Oh  no  !  "  exclaimed  the  young  girl,  blushing ;  "  I  should 
prefer  you,  mother,  would  tell  it." 

"  It  will  come  much  better  from  your  lips,  my  girl,"  said 
the  father.  "  And  as  you  have  been  nearly  dumb  the  whole 
evening,  it  is  your  turn  to  speak." 

"Well,"  she  replied,  "since  it  must  be  so,  I  have  to 
make  the  best  of  a  bad  bargain.  We  were  walking  on  a 
narrow  path  separated  from  a  wide  drive  by  a  couple  of 
feet  of  green  turf,  when  on  came  a  young  man  alone  in  a 
light  carriage  drawn  by  a  high-spirited  pony.  The  young 
man  had  a  small  whip,  which  he  flourished  occasionally,  and 


116  LOUISA  KIEKBBIBE. 

when  near  ns  the  whip  escaped  from  his  hand,  I  suppose, 
unintentionally.  It  fell  at  my  feet,  and  I  took  it  np.  The 
young  gentleman  had  checked  his  horse,  and  in  receiving 
the  little  thing  from  me,  he  took  my  hand  and  said :  '  It  is 
your  mother  that  has  the  hood  on?' — 'Yes,  sir,'  I  replied. 
— 'When  did  you  come  from  Ireland!' — 'A  few  months 
ago,  sir.' — 'From  what  county  ? ' — '  Wexford,  sir.' — 'Bless 
me  ! '  he  exclaimed,  '  this  is  a  coincidence  ;  I  am  also  from 
that  county  ;  my  name  is  McElheran,  what  is  yours  % ' — 
'0' Byrne,  sir.'  —  'Are  you  related  to  that  young  Con 
O' Byrne  of  whom  the  papers  spoke  lately,  who  treated  so 
handsomely  those  masked  ruffians  ?  " — '  He  is  my  brother, 
sir.' — '  Better  still,'  he  said  ;  'be  sure  we  are  friends  and  no 
strangers.  Could  I  do  anything  for  you  %  Do  you  know 
the  Park  ? ' — '  It  is  the  first  time  we  came  here,'  I  replied  ; 
'my  mother  has  been  sick,  it  is  her  first  walk.' — 'In  fact,' 
he  said,  '  she  looks  fatigued  ;  she  must  take  some  refresh- 
ment.'— 'If,  at  least,  she  could  find  a  good  glass  of  cool 
water?'  I  said. — 'I  see,'  he  rejDlied,  'that  you  know  little 
of  the  place  ;  I  am  sorry  I  have  a  horse  with  me,  but  do  what 
I  will  tell  you.  Follow  the  path  ycu  are  in  ;  you  will  soon 
meet  with  some  policeman ;  ask  him  to  take  you  to  the 
Casino  ;  I  suppose  you  have  not  thought  of  money  on  leav- 
ing home, '  and  he  drew  from  his  waistcoat  a  small  porte- 
monnaie.  'Here,'  he  said,  'is  enough  to  procure  lemonade 
or  soda-water  and  a  couple  of  oranges.  But  wait  a  moment. 
That  hood  of  your  mother's  will  make  some  people  laugh  ; 
don' t  mind  it,  and  sip  your  soda-water.  But  whenever  you 
come  here,  she  must  have  a  nicer  hood ;  I  like  the  thing 
myself,  just  as  it  is  ;  but  all  are  not  Irish  in  this  place. 
Here  is  money  enough  to  buy  some  light  white  woolen  stuff, 
with  green  ribbon  to  trim  it ;  try  to  find  some  one  who  will 
tell  you  how  to  do  it  for  this  country,  and  don't  forget  a 
green  bow  on  the  top  of  it.  Then  everybody  wiU  know 
who  she  is,  and  no  one  will  laugh.'  " 

Here  Con  burst  out  laughing,  himself,  and  could  scarcely 
be  understood,  when  he  said  : 

"Julia,  you  must  consult  that  young  gentleman  himseK, 


FIRST    MEETING    OF     McELHERAN    AND    JULIA    O  BYRNE. 


THE  FAMILY  IF  THE  COTTAGE.  II7 

when  yon  make  the  liood  ;  lie  can  snrelj  give  yon  first-rate 
advice." 

"Hnsh,  yon  ill-mannered  boy,"  said  the  old  lady,  "and 
listen  to  the  end  of  the  story,  which  is  the  best  part  of  it." 

"  There  is  no  other  end  of  the  story,  mother,"  said  Julia  ; 
"he  directly  whipped  up  his  horse,  and  drove  off." 

"Is  your  memory  so  short,"  replied  the  old  lady;  "or 
why  are  you  so  shy  in  presence  of  your  father  and  brother  ? 
I  tell  you,  you  must  tell  the  end  of  it  ? " 

"I  cannot,  mother,"  said  Julia,  all  covered  with  blushes. 

"Yery  well,"  remarked  Mrs.  0' Byrne,  "I  Tvill  finish  it 
myself:  'My  dear  Miss  O' Byrne,'  he  added,  in  conclusion, 
'  the  hood  and  the  drink,  and  all  that,  is  for  your  mother ; 
if  I  were  on  foot,  I  would  give  you  something  for  yourself 
alone— a  hearty  kiss,  in  the  fashion  of  the  old  country.' 
And  he  directly  drove  off  and  left  us." 

"I  am  certain,"  remarked  old  Mr.  0' Byrne,  "that  Julia 
■v^ill  agree  with  me,  in  saying  that  this  young  man  was 
surely  an  Irishman.  I  know  of  no  McElherans  in  County 
Wexford ;  but  every  one  is  aware  how  poor  Ireland  is 
mixed  up,  and,  I  am  sure,  that  the  gentleman  is  what  he 
said  he  is.  But,  my  dear  Honorah,  you  must  have  had 
some  adventure  in  that  Kaiseenough"  (Casino),  with  a 
strong  aspiration  on  the  last  syllable,  "or  whatever  name 
you  may  give  to  the  place  ? " 

"We  had,"  said  the  old  lady ;  "but  of  no  great  conse- 
quence. We  found  in  it  a  very  large  room,  with  many 
tables,  at  which  four  or  more  persons  might  be  seated. 
We  chose  a  small  one,  and  a  colored  boy  came  to  ask  us 
what  we  wanted.  '  Some  soda-water,'  Julia  replied.  '  With 
what  syrup?'  said  the  boy.  This  was  a  puzzle ;  but  Julia 
did  not  lose  her  presence  of  mind.  '  Of  whatever  kind  you 
wish,'  she  said  ;  and  several  persons  around,  who  heard 
it,  tittered  a  little.  All  appeared  in  admiration  of  my 
hood ;  but  everything  and  everybody  was  good-natured ; 
not  a  word  was  said  which  might  be  unpleasant ;  and,  after 
drinking  that  soda-water,  which  was,  in  fact,  very  refresh- 
ing, Julia  bought  a  couple  of  oranges,  which  we  intended 


118  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

to  enjoy  in  our  ramble.  We  left  the  place  at  the  very  time 
that  a  great  many  persons  were  coming  in  carriages,  and  I 
was  glad  to  escape,  for  everybody  looked  at  me  with  a  great 
deal  of  curiosity.  In  my  mind,  the  conclusion  of  all  that 
happened  to  us,  is  this :  The  country  is  a  queer  one ;  ex- 
tremely pleasant  on  one  side ;  full  of  excellent  people  ready 
to  show  every  sort  of  kindness,  so  that  even  the  poor  are 
treated  with  a  great  deal  of  consideration ;  on  the  other 
side,  there  are,  evidently,  wicked  people  in  it,  who  will 
attack  you  without  any  reason,  drive  you  away  from  your 
house,  and  burn  it  over  your  head — worse  than  in  the  old 
country.  This,  indeed,  passes  my  comprehension ;  but  we 
have  always  God  with  us,  and  with  Him  we  are  safe." 

The  supper  had  now  been  finished  for  some  time.  Julia 
had  removed  everything  from  the  table  ;  and,  strange  to  say, 
no  one  proposed  to  make  a  glass  of  punch.  Mr.  O' Byrne, 
rather  slow  in  his  movements,  was  just  finishing  the  pipe  he 
had  lighted  at  the  end  of  the  meal.  Shortly  after  they  all 
retired  full  of  contentment,  or  rather  of  happiness.  Con, 
who  had  enjoyed  the  evening  as  well  as  the  old  people,  said 
very  sensibly  that  he  preferred  a  great  deal  to  have  a  talk  of 
this  kind  rather  than  the  boisterous  conversation  of  public 
saloons,  where  those  who  worked  with  him  spent  a  good 
part  of  their  nights.  Nay,  more,  any  sensible  man  who 
should  have  been  left  by  Almighty  God  at  liberty  to  choose 
between  the  life  in  the  mansion  and  that  in  the  shanty, 
would  surely  have  preferred  the  second  to  the  first. 

Just  when  Julia  was  helping  her  mother  to  bed,  the  old 
lady  said  to  her :  "To-day,  child,  I  have  tried  my  strength  ; 
to-morrow  I  must,  since  I  can,  go  to  mass  to  thank  God  for 
his  great  goodness.  You  know  the  way,  daughter,  and  you 
can  come  with  me  ! " 

''With  great  pleasure,"  answered  Julia ;  and  that  night 
there  was  peace,  joy,  and  sound  repose  in  the  dilapidated 
cottage. 


CHAPTER  Yin. 

A  EELIGIOUS   CONTEOVEESY   OF  A  NEW  KIND. 

Aftee  a  quiet  and  starry  night,  the  sun  rose  as  bright  as 
on  the  previous  day.  Just  when  its  rays  struck  the  win- 
dow of  the  cottage,  the  little  wren  the  two  women  had 
heard  in  the  Park  raised  her  clarion  voice  from  the  highest 
peak  of  the  shanty's  roof.  She  had  probably  never  yet 
dared  to  come  so  near  an  inhabited  dwelling.  But  the  uni- 
versal repose  all  around  invited  her  ;  and  we  do  not  doubt 
that,  even  in  case  Julia  had  suddenly  appeared  at  the  door, 
she  won  Id  not  have  thought  of  flying  away.  Everybody, 
however,  had  been  up  in  the  house  for  a  long  time.  The 
men  had  breakfasted,  and  were  gone  ;  the  two  women  were 
dressing  and  preparing  to  go  out.  When  they  appeared  at 
the  door  the  bird  had  just  finished  her  song,  and  her  little 
wdngs  were  still  fluttering  with  evident  glee.  She  then  stood 
motionless  for  a  moment ;  but  instead  of  flying  away,  she 
came  down  and  alighted  a  few  feet  from  Julia,  rubbed  her 
little  body  on  the  glittering  turf,  and  rising  up,  went  to  rest  on 
the  highest  top  of  the  mansion,  where  she  began  to  sing  again. 

Mrs.  O' Byrne  and  her  daughter  walked  all  the  way  to  the 
church  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  the  nearest  to  them  at 
the  time,  went  to  confession,  and  received  holy  communion. 
Then,  having  finished  their  prayers,  they  went  back  home  ; 
and  after  taking  a  cup  of  coffee,  the  girl  expressed  the  wish 
to  pay  a  visit  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  and  ask  her  about  the 
fashion  of  a  hood. 

She  therefore  put  on  aU  the  finery  she  had  received  from 
the  lady — the  bonnet,  the  earrings,  and  other  little  trinkets 
of  that  sort.     The  walk  of  the  previous  afternoon,  and,  we 

119 


120  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

may  say,  the  holy  feelings  excited  in  her  by  the  dev^otions 
of  the  morning,  gave  a  flush  to  her  cheeks,  a  modesty  to 
her  eyes,  and  a  gracefulness  to  all  her  person,  precisely  of 
the  kind  to  please  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  There  is  a  sort  of  free- 
masonry in  true  virtue,  as  well  as — we  are  sorry  to  say — in 
vice ;  but  of  a  very  different  kind :  the  purest  affection  is 
directly  engendered,  if  it  did  not  exist  before ;  and  two 
minds,  or  rather  two  hearts,  merely  looking  at  each  other 
through  the  purified  senses,  are  ready  to  unite  in  holy  love, 
and  to  open  themselves  unreservedly  to  each  other. 

This  was  certainly  the  feeling  which  arose  in  the  lady  of 
the  mansion  at  the  sight  of  Julia,  who,  as  soon  as  an- 
nounced by  the  porter,  was  directed  to  walk  up  stairs  to  her 
room,  where  she  was  alone.  Seated  in  an  arm-chair  near  a 
little  table  covered  with  wool  and  silk,  and  pieces  of  stuff 
at  which  she  was  working,  as  soon  as  she  saw  Julia  coming 
in  with  happiness  depicted  in  her  features,  she  arose,  took 
another  arm-chair,  and  placed  it  so  near  her  own  that  the 
two  together  formed  a  double  one.  Then  placing  her  in  it 
with  a  gentle  pressure,  she  sat  down  herself,  looked  more 
closely  at  the  girl,  and  exclaimed : 

**  Where  have  you  been,  dear  child — I  have  not  seen  you 
for  so  long  a  time  ? " 

'^  I  was  afraid,  madam,"  she  replied,  *'of  disturbing  you 
by  calling  so  soon  after  all  the  trouble  you  had  on  our  ac- 
count. But  if  I  did  not  come,  be  sure  my  heart  was  wdth 
you." 

^'  I  believe  it,"  the  lady  retorted  ;  *'  but  another  time  do 
not  be  afraid  of  disturbing  me  ;  you  will  always  be  welcome 
in  this  room,  where  I  find  more  cares  than  pleasures,  chiefly 
when  I  am  alone." 

*'  I  hope,  madam,  you  have  only  slight  cares,  which  God 
will  enable  you  to  bear  easily." 

*'  It  is  easy  for  you  to  say  so,  child,  but  the  reality  is  often 
more  heavy  than  you  think.  I  have  God,  as  you  say,  to 
help  me,  and  an  excellent  husband,  besides  ;  yet  I  may  have 
occasionally  as  much  trouble  as  your  whole  family  had  from 
the  wicked  people  who  twice  attacked  you." 


A  RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY  OF  A  NEW  KIND.        121 

"I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  it,"  exclaimed  Julia,  ''and  I 
will  pray  to  God  for  you,  more  heartily  still  than  before, 
and  very  soon,  I  hope,  after  your  trouble,  there  will  be  as 
much  joy  for  you  as  there  is  among  us,  chiefly  owing  to 
you,  after  God."  And  the  innocent  girlish  face  then  as- 
sumed such  an  expression  of  sympathy  and  love,  that  good 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  threw  her  arms  around  her,  pressed  her  to 
her  bosom,  and  actually  shed  tears.  There  was  a  moment 
of  silence  during  which  you  could  hear  only  the  beating  of 
two  hearts  in  unison  ;  and  the  poor  afflicted  mother  of  the 
wretched  Frederick  found  as  much  consolation  with  Julia 
on  her  bosom,  as  if  she  had  been  one  of  her  departed 
daughters  grown  to  her  age,  and  as  beautiful  and  as  good 
as  she  was. 

Improbable  as  this  scene  may  appear  to  those  superfi- 
cial observers  of  the  world  who  think  there  is  no  virtue  nor 
genuine  feeling  at  all  left  in  it,  and  who  judge  of  all  abso- 
lutely by  the  great  majority  of  fashionable  people,  it  seems 
very  natural  to  those  who  have  known  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  the 
most  unworldly  of  great  ladies,  the  most  simple  in  her  man- 
ners, and  unartificial  in  her  ways. 

After  this  outburst  of  feeling  had  lasted  a  minute  or  two, 
the  lady  came  to  herself  and  said :  "I  suppose,  child,  you 
came  because  you  are  in  need  of  something  ;  what  can  I  do 
for  you?"  And  Julia  related  to  her,  at  length,  what  had 
taken  place  in  the  Park  the  day  before,  the  scene  with  the 
young  Irishman — without,  of  course,  mentioning  what  he 
said  of  the  kiss — and  finished  her  tale  with  the  request  that 
she  would  be  kind  enough  to  show  her  how  to  make  a 
''fashionable"  hood.  She  had  brought  her  mother's  old 
one  well  brushed,  and  ironed,  and  cleaned,  but  for  all  that 
old  and  certainly  "unfashionable." 

The  lady  could  not  help  smiling  at  first,  and  then  laugh- 
ing outright. 

"So,  I  see,"  she  said,  "you  want  to  introduce  a  new 
fashion  ;  but  I  tell  you  this  one  will  not  take." 

"That  is  far  from  my  intention,  madam,"  replied  Julia  ; 
"  but  you  see  the  hood  is  the  head-dress  of  Irish  women  ; 


122  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

my  mother  would  not,  for  anything  in  the  world,  put  a  bon- 
net on  her  head  ;  and  the  question  is  merely  to  give  to  a 
new  hood  I  am  going  to  make  for  her  such  a  shape  that  it 
shall  not  appear  too  strange  in  this  country." 

^'I  understand  now,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride  ;  and  at  her 
suggestion,  it  was  agreed  that  the  new  one  should  not  come 
down  so  far,  by  at  least  one  half,  on  the  shoulders  behind, 
that  in  front  it  should  not  shade  the  whole  face  under  its 
ample  folds,  that  a  slight  turn  should  be  given  to  it  on  the 
sides,  so  as  to  show  a  few  of  the  mother's  venerable  gray 
curls.  As  to  the  trimming  with  green  ribbon,  and  a  green 
bow  on  the  top  of  it,  the  lady  said  that  green  could  not  be 
fashionable  because  nobody  in  this  country  wanted  to  be 
"green,"  and  the  joke  was  too  easily  suggested  by  such  an 
accumulation  of  greenness  on  the  head.  However,  as  it  was 
the  national  color  of  Ireland,  it  would  do  very  well  in  the 
eyes  of  Irish  people,  and  she  had  heard  from  Dr.  Dillon 
that  this  country  is  full  of  them.  She  did  not  advise  her, 
nevertheless,  to  put  too  much  of  it ;  but  a  little  of  it,  taste- 
fully arranged,  might  do  very  well. 

We  had  to  enter  into  all  those  details,  because  dress  is 
always  a  very  important  question  for  ladies,  and  there  may 
be  some  ladies  among  our  readers.  After  the  conclusion  of 
the  conversation  on  the  subject,  Mrs.  Kirkbride  embraced 
Julia  tenderly,  and  told  her  she  intended  to  go  see  Mrs. 
O' Byrne,  before  going  shopping  in  the  afternoon,  as  she 
wished  to  judge  with  her  own  eyes  of  the  real  progress  of 
her  recovery. 

The  old  lady  was  really  made  much  happier  by  the  con- 
descension of  her  benefactress,  and  extra  care  was  taken  by 
Julia  to  make  the  ''reception"  room  look  more  tidy  and 
comfortable  than  ever.  The  mother  and  daughter  took 
their  dinner  alone,  and  a  little  before  two  o'clock  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  was  seen  walking  along  her  usual  little  path, 
and  a  minute  after  she  was  seated  in  the  rocking-chair 
near  the  lounge,  where  Mrs.  0' Byrne  and  Julia  took  their 
place. 

''I  heard  this  morning,  from  your  daughter,"  said  the 


A  RELIGIOUS  C0NTR0VEB8Y  OF  A  NEW  KIND.        123 

lady,  "  that  you  were  up,  and  I  have  come  to  see  how  you 
look  after  all  your  sickness  and  trouble." 

"It  is  very  kind  of  you,  madam,"  replied  the  old  woman  ; 
"  if  I  am  alive,  I  owe  it  to  you  after  God.  I  ought,  indeed, 
to  have  gone  before  this  to  thank  you  ;  but  in  the  old  coun- 
try we  are  not  used  to  visit  ladies  like  you  ;  and  when  we 
find  a  friend  among  them — which  is  not  often  the  case — they 
are  quite  satisfied  if  our  heart  is  grateful." 

"It  seems  that  you  took  a  long  walk  yesterday  ;  did  you 
derive  any  benefit  from  it?"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  rather 
abruptly. 

"  A  great  deal,  madam  ;  and  I  felt  so  strong  this  morning 
that  I  could  walk  to  the  church  with  Julia,  where  I  went 
to  thank  God  and  to  receive  holy  communion." 

"  Did  you  1 "  ejaculated  the  lady  ;  "you  are  very  happy, 
in  my  oinnion,  to  always  find  your  churches  open,  and  to 
have  the  priceless  boon  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  always  ready 
for  you  when  you  wish  it.  It  is  not  so  with  us,  and  Dr. 
Dixon  thinks,  as  I  do,  that  it  would  be  much  better  for  us 
to  follow  your  example  in  that  regard.  If  I  wish  to  thank 
God,  or  to  ask  any  favor  from  Him,  I  cannot  think  of  going 
to  church,  if  it  is  not  Sunday  ;  and  as  to  holy  communion, 
I  would  be  thought  very  singular  by  the  other  members  of 
our  congregation,  should  I  receive  it  oftener  than  once  a 
month,  and  it  must  ahvays  be  on  Sunday  ;  during  the  week 
we  have  only  our  rooms  to  pray  in  ;  and  it  has  always 
shocked  me  to  think  that  such  being  the  case,  deprived  as 
we  are  of  the  House  of  God  for  six  days  out  of  seven,  we 
cannot  devote  the  smallest  apartment  of  our  large  houses 
exclusively  to  prayer  and  thanksgiving  ;  nay,  even  to  ex- 
pose to  view  anywhere  in  our  dwellings  any  religious  object 
calling  God  to  our  mind,  is  thought  to  be  odd,  queer,  even 
shocking  and  improper.  I  hope,  however,  that  the  efforts 
of  some  good  priests  of  God  among  us  mil  soon  change  all 
that,  and  give  to  our  worship  something  of  the  cheerful- 
ness of  yours." 

"You  cannot  imagine,  madam,"  replied  Mrs.  O' Byrne, 
"how  glad  I  am  to  hear  from  you,  that  you  have  in  your 


124  LOUISA  KIRKBEIBE. 

midst  'some  good  priests  of  God.'  If  that  is  the  case,  we 
are  absolutely  one  in  religion,  and  there  cannot  be  the  least 
difference  between  us." 

This  artless  expression  of  the  good  old  lady,  uttered  in 
all  simplicity  and  good  faith,  produced  a  strong  impression 
on  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

''Indeed,"  she  exclaimed,  "  we  have  priests,  ordained  by 
bishops,  and  in  full  orders,  and  empowered  to  admit  us  to 
the  reception  of  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church." 

"Then,  madam,"  cried  out  Mrs.  0' Byrne,  "there  can  be 
no  distinction  whatever  between  us  ;  and,  in  that  case,  why 
should  you  not  use,  for  your  spiritual  benefit,  our  churches 
and  our  clergymen,  always  open,  and  always  accessible, 
since  you  confess,  yourself,  that  it  is  not  the  same  for  you 
six  days  out  of  seven  %  Julia  would  be  so  proud  to  go  with 
you  to  the  church  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  one  of  these 
fine  mornings." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride,  at  first,  doubted  if  the  old  woman  was  not 
using  a  figure  of  speech  called  "irony"  by  the  rhetoricians, 
and  this  would  not  have  pleased  her ;  but  the  tone  of  voice, 
the  expression  of  the  face,  were  so  natural  and  simple,  that 
she  dismissed  such  a  doubt,  and  saw  that  Mrs.  O' Byrne  in 
her  simplicity  could  not  admit  "  priests  " — real  priests,  mind 
— of  two  different  kinds  in  the  same  church  of  God,  and  com- 
pletely separated  in  their  acts  of  worship  by  an  impassable 
gulf.  By-and-by,  she,  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  might  be  brought  to 
the  same  persuasion,  and  open  her  eyes  on  her  previous  blind- 
ness, which  did  not  allow  her  to  perceive  the  impossibility  of 
such  extremes  meeting  at  all ;  but,  at  this  stage  of  our  story, 
she  was  fully  persuaded  that  there  could  be  real  'priests 
of  God '  in  the  Episcopalian,  as  there  are  in  the  Catholic, 
Church.     So  she  only  smiled,  and  replied  to  Mrs.  O'Byrne  : 

"I  think  it  is  better  for  us  not  to  discuss  this  point; 
we  might  not  understand  each  other.  But,  my  dear  Mrs. 
O'Byrne,  there  is  something  you  must  tell  me — and  I  am 
sure  you  can.  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  prayed  for  me  this 
morning.  Please  tell  me,  what  you  asked  of  our  Lord  in 
my  behalf?" 


A   RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY  OF  A  NEW  KIND,        125 

'^Indeed,  madam,"  exclaimed  the  old  woman,  ''you  are 
right  in  thinking  I  prayed  for  you  this  morning.  It  would 
be  very  ungrateful  in  me  not  to  do  so.  I  cannot  do  any- 
thing but  pray  in  return  for  all  your  favors,  and  to  this  you 
are  better  entitled  than  any  other  person  I  have  ever  known, 
with  the  exception  of  my  husband  and  children.  But  this 
morning,  in  the  church,  I  thought  less  of  them  than  of  you. 
In  fact,  all  I  have  to  ask  for  them  is  nearly  limited  to  tem- 
poral blessings,  as  I  would  be  unreasonable  to  wish  them 
much  better  morally  than*  they  are.  I  ought  to  be  satisfied 
if  they  continue  the  same." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  deeply  moved,  and  thought  that  this 
poor  family  was  not,  after  all,  altogether  wretched.  She 
wished  to  have  a  few  more  details  on  the  subject. 

"  Glad  to  hear  it,"  she  said.  ''  And,  indeed,  I  know  that 
it  could  not  be  otherwise,  with  respect  to  your  daughter. 
Your  husband,  also,  is,  no  doubt,  a  worthy  man ;  all  I  see 
or  hear  of  him  is  in  his  favor ;  but,  if  your  son  does  not 
give  you  any  trouble,  he  must  be  an  exception  to  the  or- 
dinary run  of  Irish  boys,  at  least,  from  what  I  understand 
from  others." 

"  Exception  or  not,  madam,  I  bless  Almighty  God  every 
day  that  I  have  such  a  son  as  Con.  We  could  just  give 
him  a  little  smattering  of  education,  such  as  Julia  also 
received ;  yet  he  can  do  much  more  than  read  and  write, 
and  has  sense  enough  to  be  already  a  man  in  his  thoughts. 
He  lives  altogether  for  the  family,  and  takes  the  greatest 
interest  in  all  our  concerns.  He  has  no  pleasures  to  enjoy, 
the  poor  boy,  but  what  he  finds  in  our  company  every  night 
after  his  hard  day's  work ;  and  yet  he  is  always  cheerful 
and  a  good  companion.  His  father  and  myself  know  that  he 
is  strongly  attached  to  us,  and  would  give  his  life  to  pro- 
tect us  from  harm.  As  to  Julia,  it  is  one  of  my  greatest 
pleasures  to  see  the  care  he  takes  of  her,  whenever  she 
needs  it.  And  all  this,  madam,  is,  I  trust,  secured,  and 
will  not  change,  because  he  is  sincerely  devoted  to  the 
practice  of  his  religion.  Could  I  wish  anything  better,  even 
if  we  were  wealthy  ? " 


126  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

Mrs.  0' Byrne  was  not  aware  that  everything  she  said, 
stirred  np  in  the  heart  of  hearts  of  the  lady  feelings  as  pain- 
ful as  they  were  keen.  JS'ot  that  envy  could  enter  that  pure 
soul ;  not  that  tlie  picture  of  family  happiness,  drawn  by 
these  simple  words,  could  be  gall  and  wormwood  for  that 
eminently  charitable  and  sweet  lady.  On  the  contrary,  her 
affection  for  this  family  increased  in  proportion,  as  she 
found  all  the  members  of  it  worthy  of  her  esteem.  But  the 
fearful  sense  of  her  own  domestic  woes  could  not  but  be 
extremely  acute  when  she  compared  what  she  knew  of  her 
boy  with  what  Mrs.  0' Byrne  was  relating  of  her  son.  She, 
however,  dismissed,  the  best  way  she  could,  this  painful  im- 
pression. 

'*  You  keep  me  on  thorns,  my  dear  Mrs.  0' Byrne,"  she 
said;  ''you  had  promised  to  tell  me  what  you  asked  of 
God  for  me  this  morning,  and  I  suppose  you  have  quite  for- 
gotten your  promise  by  this  time,  and  I  will  never  know 
what  passed  in  your  mind  concerning  me  when  you  were 
communing  with  your  Saviour  in  that  church  of  St.  John 
the  Evangelist,  as  you  call  it." 

"  Never  a  bit,  madam,  I  have  not  forgotten  it,"  answered 
the  old  woman,  "  and  I  come  to  it  presently.  Perhaps  you 
will  blame  me,  for  neglecting  to  ask  for  you  a  greater  share 
of  this  world's  goods.  I  confess  this  did  not  even  present 
itself  to  my  mind.  I  know  that  the  more  you  have,  the 
more  you  will  be  able  to  give  to  the  poor,  and  I  prefer  a 
great  deal  to  see  the  good  things  of  this  world  in  your 
hands  rather  than  in  those  of  people  who  have  no  sense  of 
humanity,  nor  of  religion.  But  greater  riches  would  not 
make  you  more  happy,  and  so  I  did  not  even  think  of  ask- 
ing for  that.  The  first  thing  I  asked  may  appear  to  you 
strange,  and  you  may  think  me  presumptuous  and  over- 
confident ;  but  I  suppose  you  want  me  to  be  candid,  and  I 
must  not  conceal  anything  from  you.  You  see,  madam,  it 
is  so  great  a  comfort  to  be  sure  of  the  road  you  tread  on, 
and  that  you  are  on  the  right  path  leading  to  heaven  !  This 
comfort  I  have,  thank  God  ;  and  this  morning  I  did  not 
think  you  had  it.     Since  then  I  have  been  quite  happy  to 


A  RELIGIOUS  CONTROVEnSY  OF  A  NEW  KIND.        127 

hear  that  the  case  is  not  exactly  what  I  thought.  I  then 
imagined  that  you  were  what  we  call  a  '  Protestant ; '  one 
of  the  good  sort,  certainly,  for  whom  we  can  only  have  feel- 
ings of  respect  and  gratitude,  but  yet  who  have  not,  to  sup- 
port them,  the  strong  prop  of  the  true  faith,  and  do  not 
enjoy  what  we,  poor  people,  certainly  have,  the  firm  con- 
viction that  we  are  the  children  of  God,  and  on  the  right 
way  to  a  happy  eternity.  I  asked  this  for  you,  madam, 
first  and  foremost ;  because  it  is  the  greatest  blessing  of  this 
life,  and  prepares  us  for  the  far  greater  blessings  of  heaven. 
I  asked  the  same  for  your  husband  and  your  son,  because, 
had  you  alone  the  true  faith,  your  heart  could  not  but 
grieve  to  see  those  so  nearly  related  to  you  following  a  path 
completely  different  and  leading  God  knows  where.  You 
see,  madam,  I  am  a  very  poor  and  insignificant  woman  ;  yet 
I  have  a  soul,  and  that  soul  feels  sometimes  very  keenly. 
If  I  was  practicing  my  religion  alone  in  this  cottage,  and 
my  Julia  here,  and  my  husband  and  son  now  absent,  had 
no  religion  at  all,  or  a  religion  altogether  different  from 
mine,  I  would  be,  I  am  sure,  one  of  the  most  unhappy 
women  on  earth,  thinking  night  and  day  that  those  most 
dear  to  me  had  neither  my  faith,  nor  my  hope,  nor  the  in- 
estimable blessing  of  true  charity ;  and  if  that  is  the  case 
for  me  it  must  be  the  case  for  you  ;  and  I  cannot  believe 
that  yoa  would  be  able  to  feel  perfectly  contented  in  the 
midst  of  a  family  divided  on  such  an  important  subject,  as 
that  of  God  and  the  soul.  This,  therefore,  was  the  first 
thing  that  I  begged  of  God  this  morning  to  grant  you  ;  and 
if  it  depended  on  me  you  would  not  remain  an  hour  with- 
out it." 

Poor  Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  at  one  and  the  same  time  fear- 
fully tormented  and  sweetly  moved  by  the  words  of  the 
old  woman.  Every  syllable  told  on  her  ;  and  in  her  present 
disposition  of  mind  she  realized  the  smallest  details  of  the 
picture.  She  could  not  but  join  her  personal  desires  with 
those  of  Mrs.  O' Byrne,  expressed  with  such  simplicity  and 
such  force.  But  what  made  her  really  sad  was  the  thought 
that  it  would  require  a  real  miracle  of  grace  to  bring  not 


128  LOUISA  KIBKBBIDE. 

only  her  wretclied  son  to  such  a  change  as  the  prayer  of  the 
old  woman  supposed,  but  even  her  own  dear,  excellent,  and 
loving  husband.  She  would  have  openly  shed  tears,  if  Julia 
had  been  alone ;  for  the  floodgates  of  confiding  sympathy 
had  already  been  opened  once  in  their  meeting  of  the  morn- 
ing, and  for  Mrs.  Kirkbride  it  would  have  been  only  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  same  scene ;  but  the  presence  of  the  old 
woman,  although  certainly  not  annoying  to  her  feelings, 
was  nevertheless  a  bar  to  an  unreserved  outpouring  of  the 
heart,  and  she  made  an  effort  to  show  insensibility  when,  in 
fact,  her  whole  soul  was,  as  it  were,  convulsed  mth  the  deep- 
est emotions. 

''What  did  you  ask  after  this,  Mrs.  O' Byrne  ?  I  am  cu- 
rious to  know,"  she  said,  apparently  unmoved. 

"I  have  already  said,  madam,"  she  replied,  "that  I  did 
not  pray  for  the  increase  of  your  wealth  ;  but  I  begged  of 
God  to  enable  you  always  to  keep  your  own,  and  not  to  be 
deprived  of  it  by  the  machinations  of  your  enemies.  We 
poor  folks  have  been  subject  all  our  life  to  secret  or  open 
attacks  in  the  old  country,  and  then  in  this  one,  and  you 
know,  madam,  quite  lately.  I  have  always  prayed  ardently 
for  God  to  protect  us  in  our  insignificant  temporal  interests  ; 
and  he  has  always  done  so  in  the  end.  You  have  yourself 
witnessed  how  the  bold  designs  of  those  who  came  unawares 
upon  us,  and  for  no  reasons  that  we  can  see,  have  been  sig- 
nally defeated,  so  that  we  have  scarcely  suffered  from  them. 
As  your  family  is  much  more  important  than  ours,  I  have 
no  doubt  that  plots  have  been,  and  are  perhaps  now,  con- 
cocted against  you  for  the  ruin  of  your  house.  I  have,  this 
morning,  prayed  to  God,  that  those  wicked  plans  may  be 
ultimately  defeated,  even  in  case  they  appear  at  first  suc- 
cessful, as  it  has  certainly  taken  place  for  us  on  more  than 
one  occasion.  Of  this  wish  of  mine,  madam,  you  may  be 
sure  that  it  is  sincere.  I  cannot  fight  for  you  ;  my  husband 
and  my  son  would  most  willingly  do  it,  if  they  were  placed 
in  a  position  to  do  so  ;  but  most  probably  they  will  never 
be  able,  except  by  their  wish,  which  is  as  sincere  as  mine." 

"I  thank  you  most  heartily,  my  dear    Mrs.  O'Byrne," 
said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  "and  I  beg  of  you  to  continue  praying 


A  RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY  OF  A  NEW  KIND.        129 

for  US.    '  God,'  says  Scripture,  '  listens  to  tlie  prayers  of  the 
humble  of  heart,'  and  I  have  confidence  in  them  myself." 

At  this  moment,  Bridget — the  new  female  servant  of  all 
work — came  from  the  mansion.  She  wanted  Julia  to  go 
and  help  her  for  a  short  time — this  the  good  Miss  O' Byrne 
had  already  done  more  than  once — as  a  note  had  arrived 
from  Mr.  Kirkbride  that  he  would  have  several  strangers 
to  dine  with  him  that  day.  Julia  went  directly,  and  Mrs. 
0' Byrne,  left  alone  with  the  lady,  said  : 

''  I  am  glad  the  girl  is  gone  :  I  was  going  to  send  her  out 
a  moment.  I  have  only  a  word  to  say  to  complete  the  story 
of  my  prayers  for  you  this  morning,  and  I  prefer  my 
daughter  to  be  absent.  I  know,  madam,  that  you  have  no 
one  to  take  the  place  of  what  Julia  is  to  me,  and  that  the 
death  of  your  last  daughter  has  been  the  cause  of  a  great 
sorrow  to  you.  I  may  be  mistaken,  but  you  appear  to  me 
young  enough  not  to  despair.  I  have  certainly  begged  of 
my  God  this  morning  to  open  in  your  bosom  another  germ 
of  gladness  and  joy,  that  shall  grow  in  your  arms  and  feast 
your  eyes  again  with  the  sight  of  another  child  like  the  one 
you  lost." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  did  not  expect  anything  of  the  kind  from 
an  old  withered  Irish  woman,  such  as  people  think  gene- 
rally inaccessible  to  what  is  graceful  and  refined  ;  yet  it  is 
precisely  thoughts  of  that  sort  which  often  fill  the  mind 
and  heart  of  "old  withered  Irish  women."  The  lady  was 
for  a  instant  bewildered,  and  could  not  keep  from  bursting 
into  tears.  It  was  like  a  well-spring  of  hidden  water  opened 
in  April  by  a  sudden  morning  shower.  Big  tears  coursed 
down  her  cheeks  ;  with  both  her  hands  she  seized  Mrs. 
O' Byrne's  right  arm. 

"  You  really  thought  this  morning  before  God,"  she  said, 
''  of  all  that  could  make  me  happy.  But  I  am  afraid  God 
will  not  listen  to  this  last  prayer.  I  thank  you,  however, 
for  it,  and  you  have  done  a  great  deal  more  for  the  consola- 
tion of  my  soul  than  all  the  trifles  I  have  done  for  you  could 
ever  be  worth."  With  these  words  she  rose  up  and  left  the 
cottage  to  go  back  to  her  mansion. 
9 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  FIEST   LAW   CHAPTER  OF  THE  BOOK. 

Mr.  Kirkbride  entertained  that  day  at  dinner  two  of  his 
friends  and  a  professional  gentleman  of  whom  a  word  must 
be  said,  as  he  is  not  to  be,  by  any  means,  a  stranger  to  our 
story.  This  was  no  less  a  person  than  the  District  Attorney 
of  ISew  York.  Several  times  already  he  had  been  in  official 
relation  with  Mr.  Kirkbride,  when  the  latter,  as  our  readers 
will  remember,  had  made  himself  a  party  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  masked  ruffians  who  had  been  on  the  point  of  setting 
on  fire  the  shanty  of  the  0' Byrnes.  The  gentleman  had 
come  to  examine  the  locality  of  the  outrage,  and  see  whom 
he  could  summon  on  the  side  of  the  State.  After  dinner, 
when  they  had  ascertained  that  old  Mr.  O' Byrne  and  Con 
had  come  home  from  work,  they  walked  to  the  cottage,  and 
heard  on  the  spot  all  the  details  of  the  occurrence.  The 
sight  of  Con,  so  young,  lithe  in  his  movements,  sprightly 
in  his  bearing,  and  graphic  in  his  descriptions,  interested 
the  prosecuting  legal  officer,  who  had  seen  him  once  before, 
when,  in  the  company  of  his  father,  he  had  denounced  the 
first  outrage  and  lodged  his  complaint  against  ''Bully" 
George  and  Mr.  Schwitz.  At  that  time  the  gentleman  had 
taken  very  little  notice  of  him,  and  thus  his  case  had  re- 
mained in  abeyance,  and  had  not  advanced  one  step  since 
the  denunciation.  George  was  out  on  bail,  and  Schwitz,  at 
last  fully  recovered  from  his  painful  wound,  was  kept  in 
the  Bellevue  Penitentiary,  where  he  had  naturally  been 
transferred  from  the  Bellevue  Hospital. 

''How  is  it,  my  lad,"  said  the  district  attorney  to  Con, 

130 


THE  FIRST  LAW  CHAPTER  OF  THE  BOOK.  131 

*' that  you  never  came  to  see  me  since  the  district  judge 
committed  those  two  fellows,  and  you  made  your  first 
'  deposition '  with  me  ? " 

"  I  did  not  know,  sir,"  replied  Con  with  simplicity,  "  that 
it  was  proper  for  me  to  move  again  until  the  time  had  come 
for  me  to  be  called." 

"I  see,  my  friend,"  subjoined  the  legal  officer,  ''that 
you  imagine  that  w^e  have  no  case  but  yours,  and  that  it  is 
altogether  useless  to  refresh  our  memory.  Well,  it  is  time 
indeed  to  look  into  your  affair,  since  I  have  to  investigate 
this  one  placed  in  my  hands  by  Mr.  Kirkbride.  Both  will 
now  move  rapidly,  I  assure  you  ;  and  if  the  jury  listens  to 
my  advice,  after  all  I  have  seen  and  heard  of  both  cases  to- 
day, it  will  go  pretty  hard  first  with  those  two  low  scoun- 
drels w^ho  made  the  first  raid,  and  then  with  that  strange 
party  of  masked  incendiaries  of  which  our  detectives  have 
not  yet  been  able  to  make  mach.  We  know  nothing  as 
yet  of  the  prime  mover  in  the  affair,  and  there  w^as  certainly 
a  cunning  rascal  at  the  bottom  of  the  w^hole  plot ;  he  de- 
serves indeed  to  be  looked  to,  if  only  he  can  be  found." 

Our  readers,  w^ho  have  the  privilege  of  knowing  a  great 
deal  more  than  the  district  attorney,  are  fully  aware  to 
whom  the  word  ''  prime  mover  "  referred.  ''  Honest"  John 
was,  in  fact,  present  at  the  time  the  legal  gentleman  uttered 
the  phrase.  His  master  had  ordered  him  to  come  with  the 
rest  of  the  company,  in  order  to  open  for  inspection  the 
stable  and  his  o^oi  apartments  there,  as  the  district  attor- 
ney wished  to  examine  closely  all  the  surroundings  of  the 
shanty.  John's  feelings  may  have  been  a  little  ruffled  on 
the  occasion,  but  he  was  very  careful  not  to  show  it ;  on  the 
contrary  he  appeared  very  lively  and  seemed  to  take  a  pro- 
found interest  in  all  the  proceedings  of  the  day,  even  sug- 
gesting many  points  unnoticed  by  the  honorable  company, 
for  the  elucidation  of  which  he  could  not  but  feel  a  deep 
concern.  Thus  he  remarked  that,  in  the  first  attack,  all  the 
servants  of  the  house,  except  the  two  fellows  who  had  been 
caged,  had  certainly,  to  the  knowledge  of  all,  remained  at 
their  post  the  whole  time,  and  none  of  them  were  aware  of 


132  LOUISA  EIRKBRIBE. 

anything  until  nearly  the  end  of  it,  just  a  few  minutes  be- 
fore he  himself  went  to  the  cottage  to  assure  the  good  peo- 
ple there  of  their  united  sympathy,  and  their  readiness  to 
oblige  them  should  there  be  any  need  of  it.  As  to  the 
second  affair  it  was  evidently  an  outside  one  ;  no  one  could 
imagine  w^hat  was  the  purpose,  and  how  such  a  conspiracy 
could  have  been  entered  into.  He,  in  fact,  spoke  so  much 
and  so  well  that  the  district  attorney,  who  was  fully  as 
keen  as  his  office  required,  began  to  entertain  some  suspi- 
cion ;  so  that  the  first  moment  he  found  himself  alone  with 
Mr.  Kirkbride,  he  inquired  w^ho  this  servant  was,  and  if  he 
might  not  have  been  concerned  covertly,  if  not  openly,  in 
any  of  the  two  outrages,  if  not  in  both.  The  gentleman 
appealed  to  on  the  subject  unhesitatingly  said  that  John 
could  not  be  suspected  of  anything  of  the  kind.  All  the 
circumstances  of  both  occurrences,  and  the  doings  or  say- 
ings of  the  man  during  the  whole  time  they  lasted,  conclu- 
sively showed  that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  them.  Mr. 
Kirkbride  was  certainly  a  very  wdse  and  prudent  man  ;  but 
on  some,  perhaps  on  many  occasions,  he  relied  too  much  on 
his  wisdom  and  prudence.  The  best  men  are  occasionally 
liable  to  fall  into  such  mistakes. 

To  look  into  all  the  details  of  both  trials  would  detain  us 
far  too  long ;  and  never  having  studied  for  the  legal  profes- 
sion, we  might  be  puzzled  to  reproduce  not  only  the  suc- 
cessive steps  of  the  legal  procedure,  but  particularly  the 
complex  terminology  so  well  known  to,  and  so  glibly  used 
by,  experienced  lawyers.  We  will,  therefore,  confine  our- 
selves to  giving  the  general  results  of  both  trials,  as  these 
results  are  important  to  the  sequence  of  our  tale. 

In  the  first  of  them  absolutely  nothing  could  be  known  of 
the  two  ruffians  who  had  carried  Julia  away.  As  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride all  the  time  insisted  that  they  could  not  have  belonged 
to  his  house,  the  detectives  were  put  on  many  wrong  scents 
which  baffled  all  their  skill,  and  of  course  could  not  bring 
forward  anything  substantial.  Of  the  two  well-proved 
criminals,  Mr.  George,  who  ''grandly"  surrendered  him- 
self, and  was  thus  as  good  as  his  word,  could  not  be  con- 


THE  FIRST  LAW  CHAPTER  OF  THE  BOOK.  133 

victed  of  a  great  offense,  as  he  had  been  stunned  by  the 
shillelagh  of  Con  before  he  had  fully  entered  the  shanty. 
His  lawyer,  paid  by  John,  proved  to  his  own  satisfaction, 
that  it  was  merely  a  visit  of  pleasure,  or  rather  courtesy, 
he  was  attempting  that  beautiful  moonlight  night,  and  if  he 
had  been  allowed  to  go  through  with  it,  the  bewildered 
O' Byrnes,  who  believed  him  to  be  an  enemy,  would  have 
found  him  to  be  a  fast  friend.  The  jury  did  not  come  to 
quite  the  same  benevolent  conclusion  ;  still  they  thought 
he  had  been  almost  punished  enough  by  the  blow  which, 
according  to  the  lawyer,  "  came  very  near  costing  him  his 
life;"  a  real  conspiracy,  besides,  between  him  and  the 
other  burglars  could  not  be  legally  established,  as  he  de- 
nied it  obstinately,  and  Schwitz  would  not  speak.  Thus 
they  convicted  George  of  a  slight  misdemeanor ;  the  judge 
sentenced  him  to  a  month  in  the  Tombs,  and  we  have  no 
doubt,  that  to  this  day,  the  faithful  records  of  this  cele- 
brated institution  contain  his  name  in  full,  as  having  par- 
taken of  the  "  hospitality  of  the  house." 

As  to  Schwitz,  the  result  of  the  trial  bore  a  completely 
different  aspect.  It  is  true,  the  positive  testimony  of  Mr. 
O' Byrne  and  of  Con,  that  all  his  movements  and  the  di- 
rection of  his  onsets,  showed,  on  his  part,  an  intention  of 
knocking  down  the  stove  and  burning  the  shanty,  rebutted, 
apparently,  to  a  certain  extent,  by  the  annoying  cross-exam- 
ination of  the  adverse  advocate,  was  not  fully  admitted 
by  the  jury  as  a  positive  evidence,  and  the  judge  him- 
self almost  discarded  it  in  his  charge  ;  consequently  Mr. 
Schwitz  was  not  convicted  of  intended  arson  ;  yet  his  evi- 
dent hostile  assaults,  the  blow  inflicted  on  the  ann  of  Mr. 
O' Byrne,  and  his  complete  inability  to  assign  any  motive 
for  invading  the  shanty,  and  to  show  the  least  provocation 
on  the  part  of  those  he  had  attacked,  made  his  case  much 
worse  than  that  of  George,  and  the  conclusion  of  the  dis- 
trict attorney,  that  it  was  evidently  a  case  of  *' burglary 
and  assault  with  intent  to  kill,"  was  insisted  upon  by  the 
judge  in  his  charge,  and  fully  admitted  by  the  jury.  Thus 
he  received  for  his  reward  a  sentence  of  ten  years  in  Sing  Sing. 


134  LOUISA  KIRKBItlDE. 

This  rather  stunned  *^ honest"  John.  Could  Mr.  Schmtz 
remain  "ten  years"  in  that  delightful  establishment  with- 
out opening  his  lips  and  revealing  the  whole  plot  ?  \Yould 
he  even  consent  to  be  manacled,  sit  in  the  cars  between  two 
policemen  armed  with  revolvers,  and  be  whisked  away  in 
less  than  sixty  minutes  toward  that  rural  retreat  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  without  asking  at  least  to  have  an 
important  conversation  with  the  New  York  police  ?  These 
were  rather  puzzling  questions  to  John,  who  was  sure  of 
George,  because  George  knew  he  would  only  render  his  case 
worse  by  blabbing,  and,  besides,  he  was  an  Englishman  who 
would  not  betray  another  Englishman  ;  but  that  nonde- 
script Switzer  was  a  totally  different  personage.  He  must 
absolutely  be  seen  in  private  and  spoken  to.  "Honest'"' 
John  found  means  of  reaching  his  cell — we  never  could  find 
how — and  he  had  with  him  an  interesting  conversation. 
John's  lawyer  had  promised  to  find  a  pretext  for  bringing 
Schwitz  out  of  the  Tombs  to  the  City  Hall  on  a  "habeas 
corpus,"  before  he  was  taken  to  Sing  Sing;  and  on  the 
way  some  friends  he  had  spoken  to  were  sure  to  rescue  him 
and  restore  him  to  sweet  liberty.  There  is  no  need  of  ex- 
plaining at  length  the  way  in  which  it  was  done.  This  sort 
of  thing  has  been  formerly  done  repeatedly.  "Honest" 
John's  plan  succeeded  this  time  better  than  his  craft  had 
done  so  far,  and  Mr.  Sch^\'itz,  after  escaping,  found  himself 
free  again,  and  a  secret  boarder  in  some  low  den  of  Green- 
wich Street,  well  known  to  him  before.  But  this  time  he 
was  an  outlaw,  his  photograph  was  in  the  rogue' s  gallery, 
and  he  had  to  keep  a  sharp  lookout  in  order  to  enjoy  the 
doubtful  "freedom"  promised  him  by  his  friend.  We 
must  leave  him  temporarily  in  such  pleasant  quarters. 

The  trial  of  the  "masked  ruffians"  took  up  much  more 
time.  There  were  five  prisoners  ;  a  most  prominent  one, 
who  had  been  caught  by  the  police  in  the  act  of  pouring 
kerosene  oil  on  burning  shavings  ;  the  four  others  only  be- 
longed to  the  attacking  party,  and  could  not  be  convicted 
of  anything  individually,  except  of  having  entered  into  a 
kind  of  "conspiracy  "  and  begun  to  carry  it  out. 


THE  FIRST  LAW  CHAPTER  OF  THE  BOOK.  135 

The  detectives,  as  we  just  saw  a  few  pages  back,  had 
been  quite  unable  to  reach  the  head  of  the  plot.  The  pris- 
oners, interrogated  apart,  had  not  revealed  anything  impor- 
tant, and  even  could  not  do  it.  They  confessed  "man- 
fully" that  they  were  daily  annoyed  by  the  ugly  sight  of 
those  Irish  shanties,  so  numerous  then  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Central  Park.  It  was  a  nuisance ;  everybody  that 
they  knew  pronounced  it  a  nuisance  ;  every  respectable 
person  in  the  city  would  be  glad  of  their  complete  extinc- 
tion. But  since  the  city  authorities  did  not  move  in  the 
matter,  although  often  called  upon  to  do  so  by  many  daily 
papers,  they  had  undertaken  the  patriotic  task  of  bringing 
about  what  everybody  wished.  They  did  not  intend  to  do 
any  bodily  hann  to  any  person  ;  hence  they  did  not  carry 
any  firearms,  only  clubs  with  which  to  gently  influence  the 
inmates  of  the  shanties,  and  make  them  consent  to  be 
bound  with  cords  and  sent  adrift,  when  their  dwellings 
were  emptied.  Nothing  else  could  be  found  against  them  ; 
and  they  were  so  fully  convinced  they  were  right,  that  they 
would  do  it  again  if  at  liberty  to  do  so.  They  did  not  know 
of  any  one  who  had  formed  a  plot  and  induced  them  to  join 
in  it.  The  plan  had  been  gradually  developed  by  general 
talking,  and  they  did  not  know  of  any  one  issuing  the 
orders  which  they  obeyed  ;  each  band  had  a  leader  whom 
they  had  chosen  themselves  ;  he  was  one  of  them,  no  more 
nor  less  guilty  than  any  of  them. 

This  is  all  that  could  be  drawn  from  their  lips,  either  in 
conversation  with  policemen,  or  in  the  direct  interrogatory 
by  the  district  attorney.  They  were  not  vagabonds  and 
jailbirds  ;  they  never  had  had  any  dealings  with  the  police 
before  ;  their  calling  was  humble,  but  not  dishonorable,  and 
their  previous  social  record  could  in  no  way  tell  against 
them. 

The  verdict  of  the  jury  imposed  on  the  magistrate  the 
duty  of  sentencing  each  of  the  four  ordinary  prisoners  to 
six  months'  imprisonment,  and  the  man  who  had  been 
found  kindling  a  fire  to  six  years  in  Clinton. 

But  several  times  during  both  trials  the  district  attorney 


136  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

had  occasion  to  remark  tlie  self-possession,  straightforward- 
ness, and  conscientious  way  of  giving  evidence  displayed  by 
young  Con  0' Byrne.  After  it  was  all  over,  he  spoke  to 
him  and  to  his  father  ;  was  surprised  to  hear  that  all  his 
prospect  in  life  was  to  be  a  common  laborer  ;  said  it  should 
not  be  so  ;  and  promised  to  see  to  the  boy,  and  find  for  him 
an  opening  where  his  talent  and  honesty  should  have  fuller 
scope.  In  a  few  days  we  may  hear  of  what  was  to  come  of 
these  benevolent  intentions. 


PATRICK    O'bYRNES    ADVICE    TO    CUtN. 


CHAPTER  X. 

A  YOUNG  MAN  ALWAYS  NEEDS  A  GUIDE. 

Meanwhile  Con  did  not  fail  to  go,  on  the  Sunday  wMch 
immediately  followed  the  events  just  recorded,  to  the  meet- 
ing in  Greenwich  Street,  where  his  new  German  friends  had 
invited  him  to  be  present.  When  he  returned  it  was  pretty 
late,  and  he  found  all  the  family  in  bed.  He  could  not, 
therefore,  communicate  directly  to  his  father  all  he  had 
seen  and  heard,  and  the  next  morning  they  were  in  too 
great  a  hurry  preparing  to  go  to  work.  But  on  the  evening 
of  this  Monday  they  met  again  on  their  return  near  the  en- 
trance to  the  Park,  and  the  old  gentleman  told  his  son  they 
might  as  well  sit  down  on  a  bench  there  and  have  their  talk. 
For  he  did  not  know  what  Con  had  to  say,  and  it  might  be 
better  not  to  say  it  in  the  presence  of  his  sister. 

''Very  well,"  said  the  son  ;  "I  hope  that  mother  will  not 
be  too  anxious  on  account  of  our  delay ;  and  I  will  make 
the  story  as  short  as  I  can.  When  I  left  home  I  went 
directly  to  the  house  of  the  first  young  man  I  had  met,  who 
had  given  me  his  address.  I  remarked  that  it  was  a  large 
boarding-house,  full  of  Dutch  people,  nearly  all  men,  evi- 
dently bachelors  or  widowers.  I  had  at  first  some  difBlculty 
in  making  myself  understood  in  English  ;  for  they  all  spoke 
only  German,  and  they  did  not  appear  much  inclined  to  be 
sociable.  I  tell  you,  father,  that  when  we  were  living  in 
James  Street  with  Mr.  Doyle,  in  a  house  full  of  Irish  peo- 
ple, the  conduct  of  the  boarders  was  a  very  different  affair. 
You  see  well  on  such  occasions  the  difference  of  nationali- 
ties ;  and  I  confess  I  am  not  ashamed  of  my  own.    How- 

137 


138  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

ever,  I  found  at  last  the  young  man  I  was  looking  for,  and 
we  started. 

''  On  the  way  he  told  me  :  '  I  am  glad  you  came ;  you  will 
be  this  evening  the  representative  of  Ireland.' — 'What  do 
you  mean?'  I  said. — 'We  form,' he  replied,  '  the  Universal 
Republic,  and  every  part  of  the  world  has  its  representa- 
tives in  our  assemblies.  As  you  will  be  the  first  Irishman 
to  join  our  society,  we  have  prepared  an  Irish  flag,  and 
you  will  take  your  place  just  under  it.' — '  You  go  too  fast,' 
I  said.  '  I  love  the  flag  ;  but  it  is  agreed  among  us,  that  I 
go  this  evening  only  to  see  and  judge  for  myself.  I  have 
not  yet  joined  your  society,  and  cannot  be  a  member  until 
I  know  more  ;  consequently,  I  cannot  be  the  representative 
of  Ireland  among  you.'  " 

"Well  said,  Con,  my  boy,"  ejaculated  the  old  man.  ''I 
hope  you  persevered  until  the  end  in  that  determination  ?" 

''I  did,"  said  the  boy  ;  ''and,  I  confess,  I  had  a  great 
deal  of  trouble  to  gain  my  point ;  he  was  so  urgent  the 
whole  way. 

"When  we  reached  the  place,  he  showed  me  into  a  very 
large  room,  already  full  of  people.  .  Remarking  that  near 
the  door  was  a  crowd,  evidently  composed  of  visitors  and 
outsiders,  I  sat  right  down  among  them.  'Come  along,' 
my  companion  said ;  '  this  is  not  the  place  for  you.  See 
yonder  that  bright  green  standard,  with  the  harp  and  sham- 
rock; there  is  a  seat  for  you,  and  you  must  take  it.' — 'I 
shall  not,'  I  replied;  'and  you  know  my  reasons;  here 
is  my  place ; '  and,  seeing  my  determination,  the  man  left 
me.  Then  I  could  look  leisurely,  examine  everything  for 
myself.  All  around  the  hall  there  were  flags,  I  suppose 
of  all  possible  nations.  They  were,  each  of  them,  sur- 
rounded by  groups  of  men,  who,  I  imagine,  belonged  to 
the  nations  represented  by  the  flags.  Our  beautiful  Irish 
standard  was  there,  sure  enough,  with  nobody  under  it.  I 
remarked  several  large  inscriptions.  At  the  end  of  the  hall, 
just  in  front  of  me,  was  written :  '  Universal,  Social,  and 
Democratic  Republic'  On  one  side  of  the  room  :  '  Liberty, 
Fraternity,  Equality ; '  on  the  other  side :  '  Let  the  poor 


A   YOUNG  MAN  ALWAYS  NEEDS  A   GUIDE.  139 

and  oppressed  come  to  ns.'  This  was  very  fine,  indeed,  and 
promising.  The  men  that  I  saw  were  evidently  come  from 
many  quarters ;  they  were  not  all  Germans,  as  I  had  sup- 
posed, from  those  who  had  brought  me  ;  there  were  certainly 
many  Frenchmen,  with  a  good  many  Hungarians,  as  I  took 
them  to  be,  with  their  Kossuth  hats  ;  some  Poles,  Italians, 
English,  and  may  be  a  few  Spaniards  and  Portuguese, 
though  I  could  never  make  out  exactly  who  they  were. 

"  When  the  time  for  opening  the  meeting  had  arrived,  a 
tall,  lank,  sallow  individual,  with  thick  mustaches  and  long 
hair,  arose.  I  was  afraid  the  whole  proceedings  would  be 
carried  on  in  German  or  French,  but  soon  found  out  that 
this  one  spoke  English  well.  He  said  a  word  of  this  at  the 
very  beginning,  and  stated  that,  as  there  was  not  yet  in 
existence  a  universal  language  for  the  Universal  Republic, 
and  this  was  an  English-speaking  country,  the  association 
had  decided  that,  in  all  their  public  assemblies  and  discus- 
sions, the  English  tongue  would  be  used ;  only,  after  the 
business  of  the  day  had  been  transacted,  speakers  would 
address  the  meeting  in  other  languages,  particularly  Ger- 
man and  French,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  were  not 
sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  idiom  of  the  country.  This 
relieved  me,  and  I  concluded  to  stay ;  for  I  was  already 
thinking  of  going  away,  which  I  would  have  done,  if  I  had 
found  myself  unable  to  understand  the  speakers. 

''The  first  one  had,  evidently,  taken  for  his  text  the 
inscription  on  the  wall  to  the  left  of  the  hall :  '  Let  the 
poor  and  oppressed  come  to  us  ; '  and  he  showed — what  is 
probably  the  fact — that,  in  all  countries,  there  is  a  fright- 
ful social  tyranny  carried  on  by  the  strong  against  the 
weak.  At  least,  his  descriptions  tallied  so  well  with  what  I 
knew  of  Ireland,  that,  I  confess,  several  passages  brought 
tears  to  my  eyes,  and,  if  my  former  companion  had  not 
asked  me  too  soon  to  become  Erin's  representative  on  the 
occasion,  I  would  have  been  strongly  tempted  to  go  and 
take  my  seat  under  the  green  flag. 

"The  next  orator  developed  the  inscription  written  at 
the  end  of  the  room  :  '  Universal  Social  and  Democratic  Re- 


140  LOUISA  EIBEBBIDE. 

public'  If  what  the  man  said  is  true,  the  society  of  which 
I  was  invited  to  become  a  member  is  spread  over  the  whole 
earth,  and,  as  he  expressed  it  himself,  extends  farther  than 
the  old  Catholic  Church,  of  which,  by-the-by,  he  did  not 
speak  very  badly.  The  project  is  to  establish  in  each  na- 
tion a  particular  republic,  framed  on  the  general  pattern, 
and  to  connect  all  those  democratic  states  by  a  strict,  indi- 
visible, and  supreme  government ;  for  they  seem  all  op- 
posed to  a  federal  union,  such  as  exists  in  this  country. 
The  speaker  spoke  at  length  on  the  inconveniences  of  this 
kind  of  administration,  as  can  be  seen  in  the  doings  at 
Washington  ;  and  I  must  say  I  was  sometimes  completely 
in  the  dark  with  respect  to  what  he  said,  and  could  not 
understand  him  in  the  least.  The  whole,  however,  struck 
me  as  a  very  grand  project,  beneficial,  no  doubt,  to  man- 
kind, if  the  real  object  was  the  amelioration  of  all  condi- 
tions and  the  spread  of  peace  and  harmony  on  the  earth. 

''  The  third  speaker  commented  on  the  celebrated  motto  : 
*  Liberty,  Fraternity,  Equality  ; '  and  he  said,  indeed,  some 
very  fine  things,  with  others  which  appeared  to  me  quite 
rash,  chiefly  when  he  spoke  of  equality.  He  went  so  far  as 
to  say  that  every  state  where  the  least  inequality  exists  is 
bad,  and  that  every  one  has  a  right  to  destroy  it ;  that  the 
distinction  of  rich  and  poor  classes  is  a  monstrosity,  and 
that  the  poor  have  at  all  times  the  right — as  he  expressed 
it — '  of  rectifying  the  unjust  distinction,'  which  meant,  I 
suppose,  that  the  poor  can  rob  the  rich  without  scruple  of 
conscience ;  and  many  other  phrases  of  the  same  import, 
which  invariably  were  loudly  applauded  by  the  whole  as- 
semblage. Until  that  time,  I  had  been  almost  under  a 
spell,  and  felt  not  only  a  deep  interest  in,  but  also  a  strong 
leaning  to  what  was  said.  But  the  ideas  advocated  by  the 
last  speaker  horrified  me,  because  I  saw  they  were  opposed 
to  all  the  teachings  of  our  holy  religion." 

Here  O' Byrne  interrupted  his  son:  ''That  horror  you 
felt,  my  dear  Con,"  he  said,  ''was  but  natural  to  a  Chris- 
tian ;  but  I  can  show  you,  I  think,  that  of  many  other 
things  which  took  you  by  surprise  and  obtained  your  ap- 


A    YOUNG  MAN  ALWAYS  NEEDS  A   GUIDE.  141 

probation,  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said.  But  before  I 
make  my  remarks,  finish  your  report  of  the  meeting,  and  I 
will  speak  after  you." 

''My  report  of  the  meeting  is  ended,"  said  Con,  "because 
I  did  not  stay  after  this  third  speech  ;  I  saw  the  beginning 
of  a  great  excitement,  and  I  remarked  that  several  men 
stood  on  their  feet  at  once,  desirous  of  addressing  the  as- 
semblage, and  I  immediately  perceived  that  many  wanted 
to  speak  in  German,  French,  perhaps  Turkish  or  Congo ;  I 
did  not  like  to  be  present  in  such  a  Babel,  and  I  slipped 
away  unperceived,  as  I  was  near  the  door." 

"You  did  very  well.  Con,"  said  his  father;  "you  had 
heard  enough,  and  there  was  no  need  of  hearing  more  to 
know  what  those  people  are  about.  I  wall  tell  you  my 
mind,  and  I  am  sure  that  you  will  agree  with  me.  With 
respect  to  the  first  speech,  on  the  inscription,  '  Let  the  poor,' 
etc.,  you  did  not  tell  me  precisely  what  the  speaker  said, 
but  from  your  expressions,  I  conclude  that  you  were  very 
near  falling  in  with  him.  Now,  my  dear  boy,  as  I  am  sure 
that  the  '  orator' — as  I  think  you  called  him — is  not  a  great 
expounder  of  the  Gospel,  I  have  no  doubt  he  said  many 
absurd  things  which  appeared  fine  to  you,  because  you  are 
still  young.  I  know  that  it  is  our  divine  Saviour  who  first 
said,  '  Come  to  me,  all  ye  who  labor  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  refresh  you.'  Those  nice  speakers  want  to  im- 
prove on  the  Gospel,  of  which  they  know  nothing,  and  they 
give  it  a  completely  false  turn.  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
wants  all  the  poor  and  the  oppressed  to  come  to  him,  not 
to  put  arms  in  their  hands,  and  to  make  them  rich  and 
happy  in  this  life  by  the  right  of  insurrection,  as  they  call 
it ;  but  he  relieves  them  by  his  grace,  giving  them  the 
strength  to  carry  their  heavy  burdens  without  murmuring 
and  rebelling.  He  was  poor  himself  and  remained  poor ; 
his  apostles  were  like  him;  his  first  disciples,  instead  of 
hankering  after  wealth  and  worldly  happiness,  brought  all 
they  possessed  to  the  feet  of  the  apostles,  to  give  it  in 
charity.  Thus  our  divine  Lord  renders  tolerable  the  pov- 
erty of  the  many  by  the  willing  charity  of  the  few  ;  and,  if 


142  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

all  are  not  relieved,  if  tlie  ills  of  this  life  cannot  be  alto- 
gether corrected,  he  gives  to  the  most  miserable  among  men 
the  priceless  gift  of  patience  and  submission.  This  is  the 
true  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  meaning  of  the  words  of 
our  Saviour.  Thus  have  I  heard  them  expounded  very 
often  by  our  priests  long  ago,  when  the  wounds  of  poor 
Ireland  were  far  worse  than  they  are  now,  and  seemed  in- 
curable— and  when  a  rash  word  uttered  by  the  lips  of  our 
spiritual  guides  would  have  made  of  us  all  real  devils  in 
daring  and  execution.  Our  priests  were  animated  A\ith  a 
very  different  spuit  from  that  of  your  '  orator ; '  because 
they  knew  the  true  religion  of  Christ,  being  themselves  par- 
takers in  the  sufferings  and  humiliations  of  their  Master. 

*'The  expounders  of  the  new  Gospel  call  to  them  the 
poor  and  the  oppressed  with  a  widely  different  intention. 
Instead  of  pouring  wine  and  oil  into  their  wounds  as  the 
good  Samaritan  did,  they  infuse  into  their  festering  sores 
poison  and  fire  to  inflame  their  passions,  and  inoculate  them 
with  madness.  How  can  they  hope  to  heal  the  sick  by  such 
a  process  ?  They  never  will,  not  only  establish  harmony 
and  peace  on  earth,  as  they  say,  but  even  cure  mankind  of 
the  least  of  its  evils.  That  inequality  against  which  they 
protest,  not  only  would  not  disappear  under  their  rule,  but 
would  become  worse  by  subjecting  the  immense  mass  of 
equally  miserable  men  to  the  power  of  a  few  oppressive, 
irresponsible  leaders.  This  is  what  they  want,  as  the  good 
and  holy  prior  of  the  Augustinians  of  New  Ross  proved  to 
me,  the  last  time  he  came  to  preach  in  Enniscorthy,  where 
I  went  to  hear  him.  For  I  would  not  have  found  that  out 
without  him. 

''And  these  few  words  of  the  venerable  father  explain 
perfectly  the  meaning  of  the  second  speech  you  heard  last 
night,  my  dear  son,  on  that  inscription  about  the  '  Univer- 
sal Republic'  They  want  all  their  republican  states  to  be 
ruled,  not  by  the  mild  principles  of  a  federal  union  as  in 
this  country  ;  but  by  the  strong  will  and  arm  of  a  central- 
ized power.  This  is  what  you  did  not  fully  understand, 
Con,  my  boy,  and  what — as  you  said — you  were  '  completely 


A    YOUNG  MAN  ALWAYS  NEEDS  A   GUIDE.  143 

in  the  dark'  about.  The  fact  is,  they  do  not  wish  to  ex- 
plain their  full  meaning  to  their  infatuated  hearers,  because 
every  one  would  recoil  at  the  idea  of  being  slavishly  bound 
hands  and  feet  by  a  hard  master,  and  obliged  to  submit  to 
the  most  inflexible  and  crushing  iron  rule.  This  is  what 
the  French  first  called  the  '  Universal  Social  and  Democratic 
Republic,'  which  is  now  to  be  proclaimed  wherever  there 
will  be  found  a  sufficient  number  of  fools  ready  to  submit 
to  it  humbly,  accepting  as  the  boon  of  true  liberty  what  is 
in  truth  the  most  frightful  slavery  which  has  ever  been 
seen  on  earth.  The  pamphlet  which  you  were  reading  for 
me,  when  your  mother  and  Julia  came  from  their  walk  a 
few  days  ago,  does  not  state  this  clearly,  because  it  is  writ- 
ten for  the  multitude,  which  they  intend  to  catch  as  in  a 
net,  but  they  have  books  where  the  project  is  sufficiently 
unveiled  to  apprise  mankind  of  their  intention.  This  was 
positively  stated  to  me  by  the  same  Augustinian  father ; 
and  I  believe  it  fully  now  after  what  you  saw  and  heard  in 
Greenwich  Street. 

' '  That  the  assertion  is  not  exaggerated,  is  proved  beyond 
doubt  by  the  interpretation  the  last  of  the  three  speakers 
you  heard  at  the  meeting  gave  of  the  grand  inscription  of 
'  Liberty,  Fraternity,  Equality.'  Chiefly  the  comments  on 
this  last  word  show  that  those  men  set  at  defiance  all 
human  and  divine  laws  known  to  mankind,  and  want  to 
replace  them  by  a  new  code,  which  certainly  cannot  come 
from  heaven,  but  must  be  derived  from  a  very  different 
quarter.  And  it  seems  clear  to  me  that  this  new  code  can- 
not be  successfully  introduced  without  the  most  frightful 
despotism,  coming  in  the  wake  of  the  demon  of  anarchy. 
For  anarchy  must  step  in  first  to  destroy  all  the  principles 
of  family  and  property  ;  and  as  anarchy  cannot  rule  long 
anywhere,  it  will  have  to  be  mastered  by  the  most  complete 
and  crushing  despotism.  Imagine,  Con,  the  fine  result  of 
this  doctiine  :  according  to  them,  the  possession  of  wealth 
is  a  crime,  as  according  to  others  poverty  is  a  crime  ;  any 
one  owning  more  than  others  ought  to  be  deprived  of  the 
surplus,  that  all  may  be  equal.    We  thus  have  a  right,  if 


144  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

we  are  the  strongest,  to  go,  armed  to  the  teeth,  to  the  rich 
mansion  of  Mr.  Kirkbricle,  turn  him  out  into  the  street 
with  his  family,  and  occupy  his  house  in  his  place  ;  and,  ac- 
cording to  their  doctrine,  the  previous  benevolence  of  the 
gentleman  and  his  lady  is  not  to  be  taken  into  account  in 
the  least,  as  that  benevolence  was  a  mere  retailing  to  others 
a  small  portion  of  what  they  owed  entirely  to  all.  What 
do  you  say  to  this,  Con,  my  boy  ? " 

''  I  say,"  replied  the  son,  "  that  those  who  uphold  these 
doctrines  are  monsters,  and  that  if  there  is  any  danger  of 
their  being  carried  into  execution,  I  will  denounce  them  to 
Mr.  Kirkbride,  and  form  a  strong  guard  of  honest  people, 
including  my  friends  of  the  'mutual  aid  society,'  to  pro- 
tect his  house  against  all  those  cut- throats.  I'll  make  them 
run  again  before  my  shillelah." 

''That's  just  the  way  to  talk,"  replied  Mr.  0' Byrne. 
"  But,  my  son,  you  may  expect  that  some  of  these  days  the 
young  German  who  first  spoke  to  you,  and  introduced  you 
to  the  meeting  yesterday,  will  again  come  and  ask  your 
opinion  of  what  you  have  seen  and  heard.  What  will  you 
answer?  I  do  not  advise  you  to  speak  as  openly  as  you 
did  just  now  ;  for  in  that  case  you  would  soon  have  to  leave 
your  work  on  Eighth  Avenue.  You  must  dismiss  the  whole 
subject  with  fair  words  ;  can  you  find  some  to  humbug 
them?" 

"Well,"  answered  Con,  "I  will  have  to  reflect  during 
the  night,  as  it  is  important  to  have  something  well  pre- 
pared." 

"Suppose,"  said  the  father,  "that  we  'prepare'  it  now: 
can  you  not  say  that  a  simple  laborer  like  you,  a  boy  of 
eighteen  or  nineteen,  cannot  fitly  represent  Ireland  in  their 
grand  meetings;  and  that  they  must  rather  invite  some 
more  prominent  Irishman  living  in  New  York,  and  known 
to  the  whole  community?" 

"That's  it,"  answered  Con,  "and  I  have  a  name  to  give 
them.  I  heard  from  Mr.  Doyle,  that  there  are  in  New 
York,  plenty  Irish  people  of  consideration,  and  among  them 
a  most  respectable  and  universally  known  character.     His 


A    YOUNG  MAN  ALWAYS  NEEDS  A   GUIDE.  145 

name  is  Mr.  diaries  0' Cannon.  He  belongs,  Doyle  told 
me,  to  the  O' Cannons  of  old  Ireland.  Everybody  can  speak 
of  him  publicly,  as  he  is  so  well  known.  I  will  invite  my 
German  friend  to  pay  him  a  polite  visit,  as  he  is  a  well-bred 
and  refined  gentleman,  and  if  he  accepts.,  the  new  organiza- 
tion will  receive  a  great  help,  and  directly  see  a  number  of 
Irishmen  running  to  be  enrolled." 

''Capital !  "  exclaimed  Mr.  0' Byrne,  laughing  ;  ''  I  wish 
the  young  German  would  be  gullible  enough  to  swallow  the 
bait;  there  would  be  fun  coming."  Then  the  father  and 
son  ended  their  talk,  and,  of  course,  when  Con  spoke  of  it 
to  the  German  the  following  day,  the  young  man  did  not 
consent  "to  swallow  the  bait,"  and  was  only  debating 
within  himself  if  the  Irish  boy  was  speaking  seriously  or 
laughing  at  him ;  but  the  innocent  look  of  Con  persuaded 
the  German  that  there  was  no  insult  intended,  and  our 
friend  was  henceforth  allowed  to  apply  himself  to  his  work 
without  further  molestation. 

Thus,  between  the  Irish  father  and  son,  the  most  per- 
fect harmony  continued  to  exist.  Snares  were  laid  in  the 
path  of  the  young  man,  and,  had  he  been  left  alone,  he 
would  undoubtedly  have  become  the  victim  of  unprinci- 
pled men  intent  on  gaining  their  selfish  ends,  by  the  help  of 
unwary  young  people  ready  to  accept  as  gold  everything 
that  glitters.  But  his  affection  and  respect  for  his  father 
saved  him  from  such  a  misfortune.  Sad,  indeed,  is  the  lot 
of  a  young  man  led  astray  at  the  very  beginning  of  his 
career,  and  thrown  for  the  remainder  of  a  long  life  into  the 
whirlpool  of  bad  passions.  0'  Byrne  was  just  the  man  to 
direct  his  son.  Although  he  had  received  no  education 
whatever,  and  did  not  even  know  how  to  read,  he  had  a 
stock  of  natural  good  sense,  which  his  deep  feeling  of  re- 
ligion kept  from  swerving  to  the  right  or  left ;  he  had,  be- 
sides, a  strong  and  retentive  memory,  which  enabled  him 
to  remember  the  sensible  remarks  made  before  him  by  men 
of  learning  and  integrity.  He  often  stated  from  whom  he 
had  heard  such  or  such  a  thing,  which  cleared  up  some 
doubtful  question.    We  have  just  seen  how  he  had  kept  in 


146  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

his  mind  and  heart  the  solid  words  of  a  religious  on  the 
designs  of  the  Socialist  sect  of  our  days.  The  old  man  had 
thus,  we  may  say,  a  whole  library  stored  in  his  extraordi- 
nary memory.  Con,  who  had  not  read  much,  and  who  had 
yet  lifctle  experience  of  the  world,  willingly  acknowledged 
the  superiority  of  his  father  in  that  respect,  and  always 
submitted  to  his  decision,  often,  however,  trying  to  obtain 
some  modification  of  it,  when  he  felt  it  rather  hard  to  be 
bound  by  such  strict  rules  ;  and  the  indulgent  father,  in  the 
true  spirit  of  an  Irishman,  made  the  thing  as  easy  as  he 
could  consistently  with  the  principle  itself,  which  he  never 
surrendered.  This  mutual  action  and  reaction  of  these  two 
unsophisticated  minds,  constituted  a  strong  bond  of  recipro- 
cal attraction  which  no  exterior  influence  could  sunder  ;  and 
thus  there  was  between  them,  as  we  said  at  the  beginning 
of  these  reflections,  ''the  most  perfect  harmony,"  sufficient 
to  produce  real  happiness,  based  on  subordination  and  kind 
feelings.  How  different  was  the  ''pretended  harmony" 
existing  at  this  time  between  Mr.  Frederick  and  his  father, 
of  which  the  natural  course  of  events  mil  soon  bring  us  to 
speak  ?  A  slight  incident,  which  happened  just  a  little  after 
the  long  conversation  we  had  to  record,  obliges  us  to  delay 
it  for  a  short  time.  This  incident  was  a  note  which  Con  re- 
ceived from  the  mail  carrier — the  first  he  had  ever  received 
in  his  life.  Being  completely  innocent  of  the  mysteries  of 
envelopes  and  note  paper,  in  trying  to  unseal  it,  he  tore  it 
in  two ;  still,  by  replacing  the  pieces  in  their  proper  po- 
sition, he  contrived  to  read  it.  It  was  from  the  district 
attorney,  who  requested  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  to  come  to 
his  office  on  the  following  day,  as  he  had  something  of  im- 
portance to  communicate. 

"Evidently,  Con,"  said  Mr.  0' Byrne,  "he  wants  to  speak 
to  you  about  that  'opening,'  as  he  called  it,  meaning,  I  sup- 
pose, a  situation  different  from  mere  labor,  or  a  trade,  which 
he  was  good  enough  to  try  to  find  for  you." 

"  It  must  be  that,"  replied  the  young  man.  "  And,  I  beg 
of  you,  father,  to  come  with  me,  as  I  might  be  led  to  accept 
what  I  ought  not." 


A    YOUNG  MAN  ALWAYS  NEEDS  A   GUIDE.  147 

"  I  will  go  with  you,"  assented  the  old  gentleman  ;  "  for, 
althougli  this  district  attorney  is,  I  am  sure,  an  honest 
man  wishing  you  well,  my  dear  boy,  he  is  not  a  Catholic 
father  as  I  am.     We  shall  go  together." 

At  the  appointed  time,  they  were  both  in  the  elegant 
oflBlce. 

''  I  think,"  said  the  attorney,  "I  have  found  a  place  that 
will  just  suit  you,  young  man  ;  and,  if  my  Judgment  of  you 
is  correct,  it  will  be  only  a  step  to  carry  you  farther  up.     I 

have  spoken  to  Mr.  M ,  our  chief  of  police,  and  in  a 

month's  time  there  will  be  a  vacancy,  which  he  has  promised 
me  for  Mr.  Cornelius  0'  Byrne.  This  month  will  be  required 
to  improve  your  knowledge  in  writing,  reading  of  manu- 
script, and  general  acquaintance  with  men  and  things.  There 
are  plenty  day  and  night  free-schools  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  City  Hall  Park.  I  will  write  to  two  of  our  best 
teachers,  who  will  take  an  interest  in  pushing  you  in  the 
branches  most  important  to  you  ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that, 
at  the  end  of  the  month,  you  will  be  fully  competent,  at 
least,  for  a  beginning.  You  must,  therefore,  leave  your 
work  in  Eighth  Avenue,  and  come  to  live  down  town,  as  it 
would  be  very  difficult  for  you  to  go  and  come  so  often 
between  this  place  and  your  parents'  cottage." 

Con  did  not  say  a  word  ;  and  reajly  he  could  not,  as  he 
was  perfectly  bewildered,  and  felt  no  possibiJity  of  under- 
standing what  was  proposed  to  him.  Mr.  O' Byrne,  there- 
fore, spoke  first,  and  apologizing  for  his  son,  who  was  yet 
young  and  newly  arrived  in  this  country,  he  said :  "  Please 
allow  me,  sir,  to  ask  you  if  you  want  to  make  of  him  a 
policeman." 

''Not  exactly,"  answered  the  gentleman;  "he  will  be 
trained  to  be  a  detective  on  a  large  scale,  and  will  not  have 
the  drudgery  of  beats  and  regular  hours  in  station  houses  ; 
his  post  will  be  in  the  office  of  the  police  headquarters,  and 
he  will  be  there  subject  to  the  requirements  of  the  chief 
alone." 

This  explanation  was  rather  puzzling  to  Mr.  0' Byrne, 
who,  never  having  heard  anything  of  police  organizations, 


148  LOUISA  KntKBRIDE. 

could  scarcely  understand  a  word  of  it.  After  a  moment's 
reflection,  however,  lie  said  :  ''My  son  and  myself,  sir,  are 
perfectly  indifferent  to  the  detail  of  the  work,  provided  it 
be  honest.  All  we  are  concerned  about  is  this :  Will  he  be 
obliged  to  spend  all  his  time  with  bad  people,  and  to  dive 
into  all  the  dens  and  bad  resorts  of  the  city  ?  This  would 
not  improve  the  morals  of  a  young  man,  although  I  hope 
that,  whatever  position  he  occupies,  he  will  remain  faithful 
to  his  religion,  in  which  he  will  always  find  a  wholesome 
check  and  restraint." 

The  district  attorney  respectfully  bowed  to  the  old  man, 
when  he  had  heard  him  through.  ''I  see,  my  dear  sir,"  he 
said,  ''  that  your  ideas  are  very  different  from  those  of  other 
people.  Was  I  to  offer  to  any  youngster  in  New  York  the 
place  I  keep  in  reserve  for  your  son,  neither  the  young  chap 
nor  his  father  would  stop  at  any  scruple  of  the  kind  you 
allude  to.  I  honor  you  for  it ;  and  consider  it  my  duty  to 
speak  to  you  candidly  and  honestly.  Your  son  will  meet  with 
temptations  in  his  way — there  are  some  in  all  possible  posi- 
tions. These  temptations  will  be  of  two  kinds  :  money  and 
lust — I  will  speak  plainly  to  you.  The  first — ^money — he 
will  be  tempted  to  accumulate  either  by  meddling  with 
politics  and  trying  through  it  to  rise  in  office  ;  or,  secondly, 
by  receiving  bribes  frpm  criminals,  who  often  try  thus  to 
escape  from  justice.  The  second  temptation  I  need  not 
expose  to  you  in  detail,  as,  being  an  old  man,  you  under- 
stand the  delicate  position  of  a  young  detective  who  comes 
to  know  the  weak  moral  characters  of  many  females,  and 
can  easily  influence  them  or  fall  under  their  influence." 
And  the  district  attorney  stopped  a  moment. 

"What  do  you  say  to  this.  Con?"  inquired  O' Byrne  of 
his  son. 

"Of  the  first  way  of  making  money,"  he  answered,  "I 
confess  I  understand  very  little.  You  know,  father,  that 
we  are  both  perfectly  ignorant  of  politics  in  this  country. 
Mr.  Doyle  made  me  go  with  him  for  my  'declaration  of 
intention' — I  think  that's  what  they  call  it — and  I  there 
learned  that  I  could  not  have  a  vote  before  five  years.     I 


A   YOUNG  MAN  ALWAYS  NEEDS  A  GUIDE.  149 

am  glad  of  it,  because  really  I  would  not  know  how  to  vote, 
and  I  might  make  a  bad  blunder,  which  would  not  be  after- 
ward pleasant  to  me.  So  I  do  not  believe  that  I  can  make 
much  money  by  politics,  since  I  have  no  vote,  and  I  intend 
to  tell  it  to  everybody.  As  to  the  second  way — receiving 
bribes  from  criminals — this  really  is  worse  than  robbery. 
I  do  not  see  how  anybody  can  imagine  I  could  be  guilty  of 
such  crime.  Any  one  who  should  tell  me  so,  I  would  knock 
down ;  and  you  know,  father,  that  there  is  no  danger  of 
this  being  a  temptation  for  me." 

^'You  are  right.  Con,"  interposed  the  father;  "I  do  not 
object  to  the  proffered  situation  for  such  a  reason,  as  I 
know  that  you  are  above  anything  of  the  kind.  But  what 
do  you  say  of  the  other  danger  alluded  to  by  the  gentle- 
man ;  the  influence  that  a  fine  girl  may  have  over  you  ? " 

''  To  be  candid  with  you,  father,"  replied  the  young  man, 
*^I  do  not  know  how  many  fine  girls  I  may  meet  in  that 
position,  and  consequently  cannot  say  how  far  I  might  be 
tempted  to  yield  ;  you  know  more  of  my  disposition  than 
myself,  and  if  you  think  that  it  would  be  too  difiicult  for 
me  to  keep  the  commandments  of  God,  we  will  both  thank 
the  gentleman  for  his  kind  intentions  toward  us,  and  beg 
of  him  to  give  the  situation  to  a  more  virtuous  man.  I  can 
say,  however,  that  if  there  is  question  of  offending  unblush- 
ingly  against  morality,  and  destroying  the  reputation  of 
poor  defenseless  females,  you  know,  father,  that  I  am  not 
capable  of  such  baseness.  I  know  too  well  from  Julia — my 
sister,  sir,"  turning  to  the  district  attorney — ''what  are  the 
deep  feelings  of  good  girls  in  that  regard,  and  with  the  help 
of  God  I  shall  always  respect  them.  As  to  the  disreputa- 
ble females  I  have  heard  people  speak  of,  I  would  abomi- 
nate them,  and  I  could  not  think  of  finding  any  pleasure 
in  their  company.  You  know,  father,  that  I  am  yet  too 
young  to  think  of  marriage  ;  but  until  that  time  comes  and 
allows  me  to  entwine  my  whole  life  around  that  of  an  affec- 
tionate wife,  I  hope  my  religion  will  enable  me  to  resist 
temptation,  or  to  rise  pretty  soon,  if  ever  I  fall." 

The  district  attorney  was  delighted.     He  had  not  been 


150  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

brought  up  in  strict  principles  of  religion,  but  he  had  nat- 
urally a  deep  sense  of  morality,  and,  wherever  he  found 
true  virtue,  he  was  the  more  disposed  to  admire  it,  as  he 
was  obliged  to  spend  most  of  his  time  in  prosecuting  guilt 
and  vice.  He  could  not  but  exclaim,  addressing  old  Mr. 
0' Byrne  :  ''Sir,  you  must  give  us  this  young  man;  it  is 
precisely  men  of  this  stamp  that  we  want  as  custodians  of 
public  virtue  and  ardent  foes  of  iniquity.  Would  to  God 
we  had  more  of  this  kind  !  Society  would  not  be,  as  it  is, 
going  to  ruin." 

"I  will  consent,"  replied  the  old  man,  "provided  my 
son  will  not  be  altogether  in  bad  company.  You  say  that 
it  will  be  too  difficult  for  him  to  come  and  go  so  often  be- 
tween this  place  and  our  poor  dwelling,  and  that  he  must 
reside  down  town.  Would  James  Street  be  too  far  from 
the  place  where  he  will  have  to  spend  most  of  his  time  ? " 

"  Not  in  the  least,"  replied  the  district  attorney. 

"Very  well,"  concluded  Mr.  0' Byrne. 

"Con,  my  friend,  you  will  get  accommodations,  I  am 
sure,  with  Mr.  Doyle  ;  he  will  find  you  lodgings  and  board 
in  his  own  quarters,  and  with  him  you  will  be  safe."  The 
day  after  Con  ceased  to  go  to  Eighth  Avenue  to  work,  and 
he  found  once  more  a  genial  companion  and  guide  in  the 
old  friend  of  the  family.  Our  readers,  nevertheless,  ought 
not  to  conclude,  that  at  the  end  of  the  month,  when  he  was 
duly  installed  in  his  new  office,  he  was  already  a  great  and 
rich  man.  He  was  merely  "  being  trained  "  for  a  detective, 
as  Mr.  District  Attorney  had  expressed  it.  He  was,  in  fact, 
only  a  small  clerk  in  that  department  of  the  police  ;  had  to 
study  hard  to  prepare  himself  for  a  higher  position,  as  he 
knew  so  little  of  New  York  and  of  the  institutions,  laws, 
customs,  vices  of  the  country,  all  of  which  must  necessarily 
be  known  in  his  new  profession.  His  salary  just  enabled 
him  to  pay  his  lodging  and  board  with  Mr.  Doyle,  and 
keep  himself  in  decent  clothes.  He  had  yet  a  great  deal  to 
do  to  obtain,  to  conquer  by  main  force,  in  order  to  be  in 
what  is  called  an  independent  and  comfortable  situation. 
The  three  other  members  of  the  family  depended  still  en- 


A    YOUNG  MAN  ALWAYS  NEEDS  A   GUIDE,  151 

tirely  on  tlie  exertions  of  the  old  and  respectable  father ; 
so  that,  for  tlie  time  being,  and  for  some  time  after,  tlie 
family  could  not  be  better  off  than  it  had  been  since  they 
took  possession  of  the  shanty.  Con  would  no  more  be  ex- 
posed to  the  temptations  he  had  met  with  when  working 
along  Eighth  Avenue  ;  but  he  was  to  find  in  his  path  many 
other  snares  of  a  character  quite  different,  but  far  more  en- 
ticing. We  must  leave  him  in  his  preparations  for  the 
promised  office,  studying  hard  under  the  direction  of  two 
able  young  men,  to  whom  he  had  been  strongly  recom- 
mended by  the  district  attorney,  and  invariably  going 
home  every  Saturday  evening  to  spend  the  Sunday  with 
his  parents  and  sister. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

UPS  A^B  DOWNS  Ij^  feed's   PATH. 

Whilst  everything  goes  on  so  pleasantly  in  the  poor  fam- 
ily, it  is  proper  to  inquire  how  matters  are  in  the  other. 
The  best  way  to  get  an  exact  account  of  it,  is  to  enter  for  a 
short  time  into  the  quiet  and  comfortable  office  of  Ralph  S. 
Kirkbride  &  Co.,  in  Beaver  Street.  In  those  rooms  some  of 
the  heaviest  commercial  o]3erations  of  the  city  were  occa- 
sionally transacted.  There  never  was,  of  course,  a  crowd  of 
customers ;  for  nearly  all  the  business  was  carried  on  by 
correspondence.  Early  every  day  a  large  number  of  letters, 
which  had  been  brought  by  the  previous  evening' s  or  by  that 
morning's  mail,  and  were  piled  in  perfect  order  on  a  side 
bureau  kept  for  that  purpose,  gave  occupation  enough  to 
the  corresponding  secretary  of  the  firm. 

When  Frederick  arrived,  a  very  few  minutes  after  ten, 
the  young  gentleman  who  had  the  care  of  this  department 
of  the  house  had  not  yet  appeared,  contrary  to  his  custom. 
Frederick  sat  at  his  own  desk,  opened  it,  and  prepared  to 
go  seriously  to  work.  He  seemed  to  be  in  high  spirits.  All 
his  previous  depression  and  ennui  seemed  to  have  left  no 
trace  on  his  truly  handsome  features.  He  looked  entirely 
as  if  he  had  his  whole  heart  engaged  in  his  occupation. 

Mr.  T.  Bland,  one  of  the  partners  of  the  concern,  came  to 
the  young  gentleman  with  a  smiling  face,  and  placed  in  his 
hands  a  note  which  had  Just  been  brought  by  an  express- 
messenger.  It  announced  that  the  corresponding  secretary 
of  the  firm,  who  had  declared  for  several  days  previous, 

152 


UPS  AND  DOWNS  IN  FRED'S  PATE.  153 

whilst  attending  to  his  duty,  that  he  felt  nnnsnaUy  depressed 
and  exhausted,  had  been  pronounced  by  his  physician  as 
laboring  under  an  attack  of  typhoid  fever,  yet  in  its  incipi- 
ent stage,  but  which  might  become  extremely  serious,  and 
would  certainly  detain  him  for  several  weeks. 

"Mr.  Frederick,"  said  Mr.  Bland,  "your  father  has  not 
yet  come,  but  he  soon  -^vill ;  he  may  propose  to  you  to  take 
the  place  of  our  correspondiag  secretary  ;  as  I  do  not  see 
what  other  choice  can  be  made.  I  tell  it  to  you  beforehand, 
that  you  may  reflect  a  moment  and  see  what  answer  you 
can  give.  I  wish  sincerely  you  could  take  it  upon  yourself 
to  accept."  And  Frederick,  perusing  the  note,  fell  into  a 
serious  mood  of  reflection  and  consideration. 

Mr.  Kirkbride  soon  came  in,  was  informed  of  the  illness 
of  one  of  theu'  most  important  employes,  and  immediately 
called  Frederick  to  his  private  office. 

"Tell  me  candidly,"  Fred,  he  said,  "can  you  take  tem- 
porary charge  of  our  correspondence  ?" 

"I  wish  I  could,  father,"  answered  the  young  man,  "and 
you  can  know  better  than  myself  if  I  am  competent ;  it  is  a 
very  important  office  in  the  establishment." 

"With  that  of  bookkeeper,  it  is  the  most  important ;  but 
from  what  I  have  seen  of  your  private  notes  lately  I  think 
you  can  discharge  the  office.  For  you  made  me  happy  the 
other  day  by  showing  me  your  manuscript  observations  on 
our  trade.  You  are  going  deeply,  and  in  a  sensible  manner, 
into  all  the  particulars  which  make  a  successful  merchant. 
Your  geographical  statistics,  and  general  remarks  on  the  di- 
versified products  of  various  countries ;  your  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  banking  and  exchange  ;  your  sound  estimate  of  the 
numerous  causes  which  may  influence  the  market ;  chiefly 
your  spirit  of  enterprise  in  opening  new  avenues  to  our 
commerce,  so  well  expressed  in  the  memoir  you  showed  me 
on  the  subject,  inspire  me  \vith  a  just  pride  on  your  ac- 
count, provided  you  continue  steadily  in  the  same  path. 
After  all,  the  office  of  corresponding  secretary  chiefly  re- 
quires a  knowledge  of  general  statistics,  and  the  art  of 
writing  in  polite  and  simple  terms.     Good  breeding  and  the 


154  LOUISA  KIHEBBIDE. 

education  yoii  have  received,  will  make  you  as  competent 
in  this  ]ast  branch  as  the  young  man  who  kept  our  corre- 
spondence. I  advise  you  to  take  the  position  until  the  sick 
man  comes  back  ;  and  you  know  that  should  you  find  any 
difficulty  in  your  way,  you  can  always  apply  to  me." 

''I  am  very  thankful,  father,  for  your  good  opinion  of 
me,"  replied  Frederick,  ''and  I  will  take  my  place  at  the 
vacant  desk." 

This  short  conversation  proves  that  Mr.  Frederick  had 
been  lately  exemplary  in  his  conduct  at  the  counting-house ; 
and  as  he  was  gifted  with  superior  talent,  he  was  in  a  fair 
way  of  becoming  not  only  well  acquainted  with  his  father's 
business,  but  also  quite  useful  to  the  house,  and  in  course 
of  time  a  solid  member  of  the  firm.  Hence  Mr.  Bland  and 
the  other  partners  always  smiled  when  they  met  him  ;  and 
their  opinion  of  the  young  man  was  quite  changed  of  late. 
He  himself  appeared  elated  and  in  good  spirits,  everything 
succeeded  so  well,  according  to  his  wishes  !  After  dinner, 
that  day,  he  told  John  to  prepare  a  light  wagon  for  a  ride 
on  the  avenue ;  he  wanted  exercise  and  rest  from  tedious 
labor.  His  father,  who  heard  of  it  at  table,  approved  of  it 
highly,  although  the  young  man  could  always  do  so  with- 
out asking,  and  without  a  word  of  inquiry  from  either  of 
Ms  parents.  The  days  were  longer  and  the  spring  in  its 
early  bloom  ;  the  moon  was  to  rise  when  darkness  began ; 
and  he  promised  himself  not  to  come  back  home  before 
midnight,  at  the  earliest. 

John  had  taken  the  best  pony  in  the  stable,  sat  proudly 
in  front  holding  the  reins,  and  Frederick,  alone  on  a  seat 
made  for  two,  jorepared  to  enjoy  the  mild  air  of  the  even- 
ing, and  to  meet  with  any  adventure  chance  might  throw 
in  his  way.  He  soon  entered  the  Park,  and  the  spider 
wheels  of  his  wagon  flew  on  the  well-graveled  road.  Light- 
ing an  Havana,  he  nodded  right  and  left  to  many  friends  he 
met ;  but  for  some  time  did  not  see  anything  which  might 
promise  an  adventure.  Darkness  was  coming  on,  and  the 
moon  Just  on  the  point  of  rising,  when  suddenly  a  light 
wagon  like  his  own,  but  with  no  driver  except  the  single 


UFS  AND  DOWNS  IN  FRED'S  PATH.  155 

man  seated  in  it,  coming  from  an  opposite  direction,  stopped, 
and  a  voice  was  heard  addressing  Frederick. 

"Is  tliat  you  ?"  cried  out  in  response  this  young  gentle- 
man. 

"  Surely  you  thought  me  dead,  and  were  glad  of  it,"  re- 
plied the  other. 

"Not  in  the  least,  Mr.  O'Tee,"  answered  Frederick.  "I 
wrote  you  a  note,  and  expected,  before  visiting  you,  a  word 
of  acknowledgment,  which  never  came." 

Our  readers  understand  that  this  sudden  apparition  was 
nothing  else  than  our  former  friend,  the  Irish  broker,  who, 
having  recovered  from  his  long  illness,  could  again  enjoy 
the  sweetness  of  life  and  health.  Mr.  Frederick  could  not 
escape  him  this  time  ;  he  left  his  own  vehicle  to  the  care  of 
John,  telling  him  where  he  had  to  go  and  wait  for  him. 
Then  taking  the  vacant  seat  in  Mr.  O' Tee's  wagon,  he  was 
reajdy  for  an  interesting  conversation ;  after  having,  how- 
ever, taken  the  precaution  to  cover  his  head  and  almost 
his  whole  face  with  the  hood  of  a  bumoose  he  had  lately 
taken  a  fancy  to  wear  on  his  evening  rides.  His  most  inti- 
mate acquaintances  could  not  recognize  him  under  this 
African  disguise. 

"Do  you  know,  sir,"  said  Mr.  O'Tee,  "that  I  have  been 
on  the  point  of  suing  you  for  heavy  damages  after  that 
prepared  accident  on  Sixth  Avenue  ? ' ' 

"What  do  you  mean,  sir,  by  prepared  accident?"  an- 
swered Frederick. 

"I  mean  that  it  was  a  conspiracy  between  you  and  your 
valet,  to  put  me  out  of  your  way,  and  jjerhaps  kill  me." 

"I  pity  you  if  you  think  so,  sir,"  replied  Frederick,  with 
a  great  deal  of  assurance;  "for  then  it  would  show  very 
little  judgment  on  your  part.  How  can  you  imagine,  sir, 
that  I  could  conspire  for  such  a  purpose,  not  with  my  valet 
—which  would  be  absurd  enough — but  with  my  father's 
valet  ?  I  have  no  servant  of  my  own.  If  you  think  me  bad 
enough  to  murder  you,  how  can  you  suppose  me  such  a 
fool  as  to  put  myself  for  the  remainder  of  my  life  in  the 
hands  of  a  mere  servant,  who  could  denounce  me  at  any 


156  LOUISA  KIBKBEIBE. 

time,  if  I  fell  out  witli  him,  and  perhaps  send  me  to  the 
penitentiary  for  life.  Do  you  think  that  I  cannot  see  the 
consequences  of  my  acts  ?  If  you  have  sense,  sir,  you  will 
easily  conclude  from  all  the  circumstances,  which  cannot 
yet  have  escaped  your  memory,  that  it  was  simply  an  acci- 
dent. If,  however,  you  arrive  at  a  different  conclusion,  you 
are  at  liberty  to  sue  me  for  any  damages  you  choose  to  ask, 
and  make  a  fool  of  yourself." 

The  reader  sees  and  knows  already  that  Mr.  Frederick 
could  assume  the  tone  of  injured  innocence  ;  and  Mr.  O'Tee 
was  fairly  taken  in,  although  not  much  given  to  sentimen- 
talism,  and  to  the  appreciation  of  noble  feelings  in  others, 
as  he  was  not  conscious  of  possessing  a  heavy  stock  of  them 
himself. 

''Let  it  be  an  accident,"  he  said;  "it  was  certainly  a 
lucky  one  for  you,  and  it  made  me  lose  a  good  stake  I  had 
in  hand." 

"I  do  not  see  things  precisely  in  the  same  light,"  said 
Frederick.  "I  made  a  good  day  of  it  without  you;  I 
do  not  think  I  should  have  been  a  loser  had  you  been 
present." 

"Everyone  is  entitled  to  his  own  opinion  on  the  sub- 
ject," replied  Mr.  O'Tee.  "I  have  my  own,  which  suffices 
for  me  ;  but  in  a  couple  of  days  we  will  meet  again  at  the 
exchange ;  I  will  take  good  care  to  be  present,  and  then 
we  shall  see  at  least  about  that  trifle  in  'Reading'  which 
remains  still  between  you  and  me." 

"What  do  you  mean?"  ejaculated  Frederick  ;  "all  our 
accounts  are  settled  until  we  open  new  ones." 

"Have  you  forgotten,  sir,"  replied  Mr.  O'Tee,  "that  lit- 
tle affair  of  four  months  ago,  in  which  you  were  bear  for 
the  time,  and  I  was  bull?  It  was  a  slight  speculation  of  a 
very  unusual  term,  in  which  we  meant  to  try  our  sldll  in 
shooting  at  a  long  range." 

In  fact,  the  young  Kirkbride  heir  had  quite  forgotten  it. 
It  is  seldom,  if  ever,  that  gamblers  on  the  exchange  specu- 
late at  four  months  distance ;  they  want  quicker  returns. 
But  on  that  day,  in  a  kind  of  frolic,  they  wished  to  see 


UPS  AND  DOWN'S  IN  FEED'S  PATH.  157 

which  of  them  both  would  be  the  most  lucky  or  skillful  on 
an  interminable  chance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  days. 
Frederick,  precisely  on  account  of  the  length  of  time,  had 
first  let  the  matter  slip  from  his  memory,  relying  on  his  mem- 
orandum book,  where  he  had  inscribed  it  in  a  blotted  corner. 
Then  the  excitement  of  the  various  circumstances  we  have 
described  had  secured  a  permanent  forgetfulness;  and  he  had 
never  thought  of  going  through  the  pages  of  his  memoran- 
dums to  see  if  all  his  accounts  with  Mr.  O'Tee  were  settled. 
He  firmly  and  fondly  imagined  they  were  until  his  friend 
brought  the  unlucky  fact  to  his  recollection.  What  was  he 
to  do  ?  True  it  was  only  a  trifle^  in  which,  should  he  be  the 
loser,  the  margin  he  would  have  to  pay  could  not  exceed 
two  thousand  dollars ;  yet,  in  his  present  circumstances, 
this  sum  was  more  than  he  had.  Hence  the  awakening  of 
his  memory  was  a  real  blow.  He  soon,  however,  recovered 
himself  and  assured  Mr.  O'Tee  that  he  was  prepared  for 
the  encounter.  The  conversation,  after  this,  fell  on  the 
occurrences  of  the  time,  and  could  have  no  real  interest  for 
our  readers.  Frederick  begged  of  his  friend  to  drive  in  the 
direction  where  he  was  sure  to  find  John  ;  and  after  a  hearty 
shake  of  the  hand  the  two  financial  antagonists  separated. 
Thus  the  end  of  the  drive  was  not  so  pleasant  to  Frederick 
as  the  beginning. 

When  he  reached  home  he  fell  to  musing  on  his  position. 
Had  not  his  father  obliged  him  to  give  in  charity  the  fifteen 
hundred  dollars  he  had  made  honestly  at  the  exchange,  he 
could  have  gone  through  the  new  trial  without  difficulty. 
Had  he  thought  during  these  four  months  of  the  probable 
result  of  his  speculation  in  '  Reading,'  he  might  have  made 
preparations  to  meet  his  loss  on  the  fast-coming  day.  He 
had  less  than  a  week  to  provide  for  the  emergency,  and 
did  not  know  what  he  had  best  do.  He  could  not  think  of 
again  abstracting  a  couple  of  bonds  from  his  father ;  this 
would  be  too  perilous  in  the  position  in  which  he  was.  He 
had  lately  brought  his  expenses  within  the  limits  of  his 
fifteen  hundred  a  year,  but,  of  course,  could  not  have  saved 
a  penny.     He  had,  in  fact,  no  other  resource  left  but  to  pay 


158  LOUISA  KIBKBRIjDE. 

a  friendly  visit  to  Mr.  James  Friskey,  in  spite  of  the  abso- 
lute prohibition  of  his  father  ;  and  he  would  have  to  appear 
again  for  a  day  at  the  exchange,  in  the  teeth  of  the  same 
prohibition.  His  immaculate  conduct  at  the  counting-room 
might  suffer  deeply  from  these  two  transactions,  and  leave 
all  his  previous  hypocritical  efforts  unrewarded.  This  was 
rather  an  awkward  position,  which  kept  him  awake  the 
whole  night. 

A  couple  of  days  after  he  saw  no  possibility  of  avoiding 
an  interview  with  Mr.  Friskey.  This  young  gentleman  was 
at  the  beginning  of  his  brilliant  career ;  he  had  already,  we 
may  say,  the  management  of  the  Dunkirk  Railroad  ;  but  he 
had  not  yet  thought  of  connecting  the  Offenbach  Opera 
House  with  it.  Mr.  Fredrick  supposed  that  a  walk  to  the 
office  of  a  public  railroad  could  not  excite  the  suspicions  of 
the  most  severe  Argus  intent  on  spying  him.  He  went 
boldly,  therefore,  early  one  afternoon,  to  that  active  estab- 
lishment, and,  sending  his  card,  was  directly  admitted  into 
the  luxurious  quarters  of  his  friend  and  boon  companion. 

*'Is  it  you,  Fred?"  exclaimed  Mr.  Friskey.  ''Where 
have  you  been  lately  ?  I  have  not  seen  you  for  an  age  !  I 
thought  you  dead,  and  am  glad  you  are  •  not !  What 
brought  you  here  1  Do  you  want  shares  in  Dunkirk  ? "  It 
was  a  rapid  fusillade  of  pressing  questions.  We  do  not 
intend  to  give  in  extenso  the  interesting  conversation  be- 
tween the  two  friends  ;  yet,  quoted  verhatim^  it  would  again 
show  the  brilliant  talent  of  invention  displayed  by  Mr. 
Frederick  on  such  occasions.  The  improbability,  nay,  seem- 
ing absurdity  of  Fred's  being  badly  in  want  of  two  thousand 
dollars  on  a  given  day,  was  explained  so  naturally,  that 
Mr.  Friskey  did  not  even  utter  a  single  expression  of  sur- 
prise ;  but  drawing  his  check  instantly,  he  presented  it  to  his 
friend,  who  had,  meanwhile,  wTitten  a  due  acknowledgment. 

Young  Kirkbride,  looldng  over  the  paper,  was  surprised 
to  see  that  it  was  to  be  cashed  in  the  very  bank  with  which 
his  father  dealt ;  but  for  many  reasons  he  could  not  make 
a  single  observation  on  the  subject,  and  preferred,  on  the 
whole,  to  trust  to  chance.     He  took  good  care  not  to  pre- 


UPS  AND  DOWNS  IN  FRED'S  PATH.  159 

sent  the  check  before  the  very  day  he  needed  it ;  but  after 
doing  so  he  was  prepared  to  meet  his  loss  at  the  exchange, 
becanse,  from  the  turn  lately  taken  by  the  '  Reading ' 
stock  he  was  sure  to  lose.  By  paying  great  attention  to 
dress  himself  as  differently  as  possible  from  his  usual 
way,  by  placing  himself  in  an  obscure  part  of  the  build- 
ing, by  letting  the  stock  follow  its  own  way  and  never 
trying  to  influence  the  ups  and  downs,  he  thought  he  suc- 
ceeded in  avoiding  observation ,  and  at  the  end  he  paid  ac- 
curately his  marginal  loss,  which  left  in  his  hands  two  or 
three  hundred  dollars  of  the  money  lent  him  by  Friskey. 
He  was  sure  that  the  knowledge  of  all  this  adroit  manage- 
ment would  never  reach  his  father,  nor  any  of  the  gentle- 
men of  the  firm  ;  but  he  was  sadly  mistaken. 

How  did  it  happen  ?  In  a  very  simple  way.  Frederick, 
in  drawing  the  money  on  the  check,  begged  of  the  teller  to 
give  him  four  five-hundred-dollar  bills,  and  this  gentleman 
complied.  Then  the  young  man  added,  in  an  apparently 
careless  manner:  ''You  understand,  Mr.  Teller,  that  this 
does  not  belong  to  the  Kirkbride  firm,  but  is  my  private 
business?" 

''I  understand  it  perfectly,"  replied  the  bank  officer; 
and  on  that  account  he  did  not  place  the  check,  after  stamp- 
ing it,  among  the  papers  of  the  firm,  but,  precisely  on  ac- 
count of  young  Kirkbride' s  remark,  he  did  not  place  it 
either  among  the  papers  of  James  Friskey,  but  he  threw  it 
in  the  heap  of  miscellaneous  checks  which  belonged  to  no 
customers,  and  were  to  be  sorted  by  a  special  clerk.  When 
it  came  to  the  hands  of  the  young  man  having  charge  of 
this  department,  he  was  struck,  not  by  the  well-known  sig- 
nature of  Mr.  Friskey — he  did  not  even  see  it,  owing  to  his 
preoccupation — but  by  a  peculiar  formation  of  the  F,  in  the 
inditing  of  the  check  to  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride.  It  looked  to  him 
like  a  well-formed  R.  By  a  most  strange  and  fatal  mistake 
he  placed  it  among  the  papers  of  Ralph  S.  Kirkbride  &  Co., 
and  charged  the  amount  to  the  firm  as  paid  to  it  by  the  bank. 
Thus  the  object  of  Frederick's  remark  to  the  teller  was 
completely  defeated,  though  the  teller  kept  the  check. 


160  LOUISA  KIRKBBIDE. 

In  due  course  of  time,  the  matter  came  to  the  hands  of 
the  bookkeeper  of  the  Kirkbride  establishment,  who  di- 
rectly saw  a  discrepancy  between  the  amount  charged  by 
the  bank  to  his  house  and  the  sum  on  his  own  books.  It 
happened  that  this  gentleman  was  at  the  time  engaged  in 
strange  operations,  of  which  we  shall  have  shortly  to  speak, 
not  to  his  great  advantage  ;  and,  without  saying  a  word  to 
any  one,  he  obtained  permission  to  absent  himself  for  half 
an  hour,  and  ran  to  the  bank,  where  he  asked  the  teller  how 
such  a  mistake  could  have  originated  ;  and,  reference  being 
made  to  the  checks  lately  received  by  the  establishment,  the 
awkward  state  of  affairs  was  instantly  discovered,  and  it  was 
found  that  Mr.  Frederick  had,  a  few  days  before,  received 
two  thousand  dollars  on  a  check  signed  by  Mr.  James  Fris- 
key.  This  was  a  godsend  to  the  honest  bookkeeper,  who 
was  aware  that  Mr.  Frederick  was  looking  sharply  into  his 
own  doings,  and  thought  he  now  had  an  excellent  occasion 
of  turning  the  tables  on  the  young  gentleman,  and  perhaps 
of  excluding  him  entirely  from  the  office  he  had  lately  en- 
tered into,  which  gave  him  the  means  of  controlling,  to  a  great 
extent,  the  general  accounts  of  the  iirm,  and  consequently 
of  finding  out  his  own  deficiencies.  He  therefore  said  to  the 
teller  of  the  bank :  ' '  There' s  a  mistake  in  your  books,  which 
has  caused  one  in  ours  ;  this  error  must  be  corrected  regu- 
larly, and  I  must  have  as  a  voucher,  for  my  own  justifica- 
tion, the  check  which  has  caused  it ;  it  will  come  back  to 
you  when  the  rectification  takes  place." 

The  teller  had  to  comply,  and  merely  observed:  *'Mr. 
Frederick  Kirkbride  will,  I  hope,  explain  everything  to  the 
satisfaction  of  his  father  ;  it  is — he  told  me  it  was — a  private 
business  of  his  own,  and  the  stamped  check  goes  to  the 
account  of  Mr.  Friskey,  and  to  no  one  else." 

^'Of  course  it  does,"  replied  the  delighted  bookkeeper ; 
"it  will  soon  come  back  to  you." 

And  running  directly  to  his  own  counting-room,  he  placed 
the  unfortunate  check  among  the  other  vouchers,  and  car- 
ried it  directly  to  Mr.  Kirkbride  himself,  remarking  to  him  : 
''A  strange  error  has  been  made  at  the  bank,  and  among 


UPS  AND  DOWNS  IN  FRED'S  PATH.  161 

our  checks  this  one  was  sent  us,  and  charged  to  our  house. 
But  the  teller  says  Mr.  Frederick  can  explain  the  error  ; 
and  the  explanation,  of  course,  must  be  given  to  you,  not 
to  me." 

Our  readers  are  now  acquainted  with  the  extraordinary 
web  of  unveiled  mysteries  which  had  suddenly  involved 
Frederick  as  in  a  net,  and  left  him  scarcely  any  chance  of 
clearing  himself  up. 

To  render  the  position  of  this  interesting  young  gentle- 
man more  perplexing,  his  father  had  heard  that  very  morn- 
ing, on  his  way  to  the  office,  that  his  son  had  been  seen  at 
the  exchange  a  few  days  before.  It  was,  it  is  true,  a  mere 
rumor,  which  could  be  traced  to  no  unexceptionable  source ; 
yet  it  was  believed  by  a  great  number  of  persons  ;  and  one 
of  the  New  York  daily  papers,  in  referring  to  the  first  ap- 
pearance there  of  the  celebrated  broker,  Mr.  O'Tee,  since  the 
day  of  his  accident,  had  mentioned  mysteriously  the  pres- 
ence, likewise,  of  a  ''young  gentleman  well  known  in  fash- 
ionable circles,  whom  Mr.  O'Tee  had  quietly  bled  without 
any  noise  being  made  about  it."  There  was  food  for  deep 
reflection  in  these  untoward  circumstances,  and  Mr.  Ralph 
S.  Kirkbride's  ease  of  mind  could  not  but  be  deeply  dis- 
turbed by  them.  He  was  worrying  and  fretting  the  whole 
day.  His  son's  behavior  for  the  last  three  months  had 
been  so  satisfactory,  that  all  his  former  hopes  concerning 
the  stability  of  his  house  had  revived,  and  appeared  almost 
unshakable.  His  intention  was  to  introduce  him  as  a  part- 
ner in  the  firm  the  following  month.  He  had  thrown  out 
several  hints  of  it  to  the  gentlemen  interested  in  the  con- 
cern, and  they  all  had  appeared  pleased  at  the  prospect 
and  ready  to  give  their  ^\dlling  consent.  But  the  terrible 
discoveries  of  the  day  threw  a  black  pall  over  all  his  pro- 
jects. His  orders  had  been  openly  infringed  ;  and  the  ex- 
emplary conduct  of  his  son  rendered  the  case  far  worse, 
because  it  showed  the  young  man  under  the  colors  of  a 
deep-dyed  hypocrite.  These  reflections  threw  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride  into  a  harassing  anxiety.  For  a  long  time  before  he 
had  occasionally  suffered  from  agitations  of  mind,  which 
11 


162  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

reacted  on  his  bodily  frame,  and  often  interfered  witli  liis 
former  regular  circulation  of  the  blood.  He  had  consulted 
some  of  the  ablest  physicians  of  New  York,  who  invariably 
told  him  that  he  wanted  rest,  and  ought  chiefly  to  avoid 
anything  that  might  disturb  his  moral  equilibrium.  Since 
the  revival  of  all  his  hopes  by  his  son's  apparent  reforma- 
tion, many  of  those  alarming  symptoms  had  disappeared, 
and  the  worst  of  them  had  diminished  in  a  remarkable  de- 
gree. He  now  foresaw  that  they  would  come  back,  and 
probably  oblige  him  to  leave  the  city  for  a  long  time,  at 
the  very  moment  that  his  business  and  the  solid  founding 
of  his  house  most  particularly  required  his  presence.  He 
could  not  stay  long  in  that  state  of  perplexity  ;  and  made 
up  his  mind  to  go  over  the  whole  affair  with  his  son  that 
very  evening.  Before  going  out,  therefore,  he  told  him  not 
to  absent  himself,  as  he  wished  to  talk  with  him  after  din- 
ner. For  Frederick  this  was  a  word  of  warning,  vv^hich 
called  forth  all  his  cleverness  ;  unfortunately,  although 
ignorant  of  all  his  father  knew,  he  foresaw  that  it  would 
go  hard  with  him,  and  he  would  find  it  difficult  again  to 
throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the  old  gentleman.  At  dinner, 
however,  he  appeared  unconcerned  and  perfectly  natural, 
and  used,  with  his  mother,  several  little  conversational 
quibbles,  which  highly  pleased  the  good  lady,  as  it  was  not 
often  that  her  son  was  so  jjleasant  and  amiable.  He  might 
not  have  been  so  witty  and  charming,  had  he  known  the 
whole  extent  of  his  father's  knowledge.  He  had  been  aware 
of  some  fuss  at  the  office,  but  did  not  know  the  signature  of 
Mr.  Friskey  had  been  seen  by  Mr.  Kirkbride. 

Time  for  serious  talking  at  last  came,  and  the  father  and 
son  sat  alone  in  that  same  room.  Mr.  Kirkbride  with  anxi- 
ety visible  in  all  his  features,  said:  ^'Sir,  it  is  extremely 
painful  for  a  father  to  be  obliged  to  distrust  his  son,  chiefly 
at  the  very  moment  that  he  thought  he  had  good  reasons  to 
be  satisfied  with  him.  My  highest  expectations  are  again 
dashed  to  the  ground  ;  they  had  revived  lately,  and  I 
fondly  imagined  I  was  now  sure  of  you,  when  your  open 
disregard  of  my  most  positive  injunctions,  and  the  reckless 


I 


UPS  AND  DOWNS  m  FRED'S  PATH.  153 

breaking  of  your  most  solemn  promises,  throw  me  again 
into  all  my  former  perplexities,  only  rendered  worse  by  the 
visible  determination  on  your  part  never  to  enter  into  my 
views,  but  to  follow  the  wretched  inclination  you  seem  to 
have  for  rashness  and  folly,  not  to  use  worse  terms,  which 
might  be  more  appropriate."     And  here  he  stopped. 

"My  dear  father,"  remarked  the  edifying  young  man, 
*  *  I  am  sorry  to  have  so  deeply  offended  you,  but  the  ex- 
pressions you  make  use  of,  although  of  deep  import,  are  so 
vague  that  I  do  not  see  what  ansAver  to  make,  as  it  is  very 
possible  your  information  was  not  altogether  reliable." 

"Did  you  not  lately  get,  sir,"  the  father  replied,  "two 
thousand  dollars  on  a  check,  signed  by  Mr.  Jas.  Friskey  ? 
I  have  seen  it  with  my  o\\ti  eyes." 

This  was  a  terrible  blow  for  the  young  scamp,  who  saw 
he  had  to  be  very  careful  in  his  answers.  ^ '  I  confess  I  did, 
father,"  said  Frederick;  "and  this  certainly  authorizes 
you  to  accuse  me  of  breaking  my  promises  ;  yet  if  all  the 
circumstances  were  known  to  you,  you  might  be  indulgent 
yet  another  time,  as  I  remember  with  gratitude  you  have 
been  once  already." 

"When  I  was  indulgent  with  you,  sir,"  retorted  the 
deeply  wounded  father,  "  I  had  not  from  you  the  solemn 
engagement  you  took  at  the  time  never  to  have  any  more 
dealings  with  Mr.  Friskey,  and  you  assured  me,  that  when 
you  saAv  him  before,  there  was  no  question  of  money.  This 
you  cannot  repeat  this  time.  And  how  is  it  also  that  many 
people  assert  they  saw  you  lately  at  the  exchange  in  open 
gambling  with  Mr.  O'Tee?  Have  you  anything  to  say  in 
extenuation  of  this  open  disregard  of  my  orders  ?" 

"Dear  father,"  answered  the  young  man,  the  very  pic- 
ture of  contrition  and  humility,  ' '  you  have  certainly  reason 
to  be  displeased  with  me  ;  yet  it  is  precisely  this  second 
fault  of  mine  which  explains  the  first,  and  renders  me  much 
less  guilty  than  I  appear  to  be,  and  than  you  think.  You 
will  not  believe  me,  perhaps,  still,  it  is  a  fact,  when  I  say 
that  my  late  appearance  at  the  exchange  was  merely  a 
finishing  up  an  old  affair  with  O'Tee,  anterior  to  my  conver- 


164  LOUISA  KIHEBRIDE. 

sation  with  yon  and  tlie  solemn  engagement  I  took.  It  was 
a  bet  of  four  months  standing,  which  came  to  be  decided 
two  or  three  days  ago.  I  must  speak  plainly,  and  relate 
things  very  painful  to  me,  and  surely  not  less  so  to  you  ; 
but  had  you  left  with  me  the  fifteen  hundred  dollars  you 
directed  me  to  give  in  charity,  I  could  have  met  this  last 
loss  without  applying  to  Mr.  Friskey,  and  even,  most  prob- 
ably, without  going  to  the  exchange.  As  I  was  situated  I 
could  not  refrain  from  either.  Mr.  Friskey  was  thrown 
accidentally  in  my  way ;  I  said  a  word ;  he  gave  me  his 
check,  and  I  thought  I  should  not  cause  you  any  pain, 
hoping  that  nothing  of  this  would  come  to  your  knowl- 
edge." 

^'Yet,"  interrupted  the  father,  ^^it  was  really  to  me 
rather  than  to  any  friend  of  yours — and  such  a  friend  ! — 
that  you  had  to  apply  in  your  difficulty.  Had  you  openly 
stated  this  old  engagement  of  yours  with  O'Tee,  I  would 
have  seen  to  it  myself.  You  have  disobeyed  me  and  broken 
your  word ;  this  is  all  I  can  say  ;  and  as  I  am  unable  to 
trust  you  any  more,  you  will  please  state  in  detail,  on  paper, 
all  the  circumstances  you  have  just  related  in  brief,  that  I 
may  see  if  you  do  not  even  now  swerve  from  the  truth." 

''I  shall  do  it,  directly,  father,"  replied  the  son,  ''and 
to-morrow  you  will  have  my  written  statement  of  the  whole 
affair." 

This  ended  the  conversation,  which  left  Mr.  Kirkbride 
almost  as  anxious  as  he  was  before,  yet  opened  before  his 
eyes  a  gleam  of  hope  that  things  were  not,  perhaps,  so  bad 
as  he  thought,  and  that  his  son  might  not  be  guilty  of  such 
deep  hypocrisy  as  he  had  imagined. 

Frederick's  ''written  statement"  was  handed  to  him  the 
following  day.  For  once  this  young  gentleman  had  nearly 
spoken  the  truth  as  to  exterior  facts ;  and  from  secret  in- 
quiries the  father  made  through  an  intimate  friend,  he 
found  out  that  the  gambling  between  his  son  and  O'Tee 
was  all  confined  to  a  transaction  four  months  old,  a  very 
unusual  affair  in  the  exchange,  and  that  the  sum  he  received 
from  Mr.  Friskey  was  just  about  the  requisite  amount  to 


UPS  AND  DOWNS  IN  FRED'S  PATH.  165 

settle  for  Ms  loss.  Still,  the  father's  nerves  had  been  un- 
strung by  all  this  agitation ;  his  former  disposition  to  apo- 
plexy had  returned.  As  his  deep  anxiety  could  not  be  so 
immediately  subdued,  and  as,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  to 
revive  his  trust  in  his  son,  he  always  saw  great  danger  in 
completing  his  intended  arrangements  at  the  young  man's 
majority,  the  source  of  the  disease  remained  permanent, 
and  his  former  health  and  buoyancy  appeared  to  have  de- 
parted from  him  for  a  long  time. 

Meanwhile,  Frederick,  who  had  not  lost  any  of  his  offices 
in  the  counting-room,  and  began  again  to  work  with  a  re- 
newed ardor,  took  good  care  to  pay  a  flying  visit  to  the 
bank,  as  he  was  yet  ignorant  of  the  precise  way  in  which 
his  father  had  learned  his  fault,  and  there  he  was  put  in 
possession  by  the  sorrowing  teller  of  all  the  circumstances 
of  the  case.  He  heard,  vaih.  a  great  deal  of  suppressed  in- 
dignation, of  the  officiousness  of  the  bookkeeper,  who  had 
been  the  cause  of  all  the  mischief.  This  was  additional 
fuel  to  the  burning  zeal  with  which  he  was  just  at  the  time 
laboring  to  discover  what  he  had  suspected  for  some  time  ; 
namely,  the  loose  way  the  young  accountant  kept  his  books. 
We  will,  by-and-by,  be  edified  with  the  result  of  his  hard 
work  on  that  subject. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE  TRAININO  UP  OF  A  DETECTIVE  NOT  ALWAYS  PLEASANT. 

Unknown  to  the  outside  world,  the  gloom  of  blasted 
prosperity  became  every  day  darker,  in  one  of  the  most 
justly  respected  and  apparently  successful  families  of  'New 
York.  Either  in  the  offices  of  the  firm,  or  in  the  gorgeous 
mansion  of  the  head  of  the  concern,  distrust  and  anxiety 
prevailed.  In  Beaver  Street,  Frederick,  if  very  active,  nev- 
ertheless ajDpeared  somewhat  uneasy.  His  intended  victim, 
the  bookkeeper,  was  even  more  so.  Mr.  T.  Bland's  face  was 
rather  cold  than  smiling ;  there  was  no  longer  anything  genial 
in  the  atmosphere  of  the  place.  In  Madison  Avenue,  dinner 
was  usually  taken  almost  in  silence  ;  directly  after,  Mr. 
Kirkbride  ran  to  his  club  ;  the  poor  lady  could  not  explain 
to  herself  the  altered  demeanor  of  both  husband  and  son. 

In  the  cottage,  on  the  contrary,  the  former  peace  and  hap- 
piness continued  to  flourish.  The  two  women  felt  most  con- 
tented after  their  former  troubles.  If  old  Mr.  0' Byrne  now 
missed  his  son,  and  could  not  have  his  evening  talk  with 
him,  he  made  the  sacrifice  of  this  comfort  with  pleasure, 
because  he  knew  that  his  boy's  future  success,  in  life  re- 
quired it ;  and  he  felt  no  anxiety  for  his  actual  behavior, 
having  such  good  proof  of  his  steadiness,  and  relying  on 
Mr.  Doyle  as  an  adviser.  He  was  not,  moreover,  to  be 
altogether  absent  for  a  long  time,  and  he  knew  that  he 
would  see  him  every  week. 

In  fact,  the  first  Saturday  after  his  removal  to  James 
Street,  the  young  man  went  in  the  evening  to  the  place 
where  all  his  affections  centered.     There  is  no  need  of  men- 

1G6 


TEE  THAmiNG    UP  OF  A  DETECTIVE.  167 

tioning  with  what  ardor  he  embraced  his  mother  and  Julia, 
and  shook  the  hand  of  his  worthy  father  ;  there  is  no  need 
of  recording  the  fact  that,  the  following  day,  he  was  at 
chnrch  with  all  of  them  ;  there  is  no  need,  even,  of  taking  a 
strict  account  of  all  the  jokes  he  perpetrated  at  dinner,  and 
the  slight  hints  he  gave  to  his  sister,  that  he  was  afraid  she 
was  taking  advantage  of  his  absence  to  emancipate  herself, 
now  that  she  was  not  restrained  by  his  supervision.  But, 
on  the  evening  of  that  Sunday,  particularly,  when  Mr. 
Doyle,  who  had  been  duly  invited  to  a  supper,  which  was 
to  be  above  the  common  run  of  Sunday  meals,  came  in  his 
fine  clothes,  with  his  smiling  countenance  and  good-natured 
phiz,  the  man  who  should  have  said  that  there  was  more 
happiness  in  any  of  the  sumptuous  palaces  bordering  on 
both  sides  of  Fifth  Avenue,  from  Washington  Square  to  the 
end  of  it  in  the  northern  wilderness,  than  in  this  sunken- 
down  and  wretched-looking  shanty,  would  have  uttered  a  lie 
as  palpable  as  that  of  the  greatest  liar  in  Christendom  ;  or, 
to  come  to  a  more  definite  point,  as  the  biggest  and  the  most 
successful  untruth  that  ever  came  forth  from  the  lips  of  Mr. 
Frederick.  How  all  the  previous  misfortunes  were  forgot- 
ten !  How  the  future  appeared  bright  and  enticing  !  How 
the  present  moment  was  rich  Avith  emotion,  a  flow  of  soul 
and  heartfelt  joy !  Let  old  Gyges  come  out  of  his  un- 
known sepulcher,  somewhere  in  Lydia,  with  his  magical 
ring  in  the  proper  position ;  let  him  enter,  mysteriously, 
one  after  another,  all  the  dwellings  of  Gotham,  rich,  poor,  or 
midway  between  the  two  extremes ;  at  the  end  of  his  un- 
perceived  travels,  he  would  solemnly  declare  that  nowhere 
had  he  seen  such  expansion  of  happy  feelings,  nor  witnessed 
such  unmistakable  contentedness  and  heartfelt  pleasure,  as 
in  this  poor  dwelling  lent  by  charity  to  a  family  of  outcasts 
landed  a  few  months  before,  in  all  the  forlorn  misery  of 
pauper  emigrants,  on  the  soil  of  rich  America. 

Yet  they  were  not  left  to  their  simple  and  genuine  enjoy- 
ments. Without  being  aware  of  it,  they  still  had  numer- 
ous enemies  plotting  in  the  dark  against  them.  John's 
hatred  of  the  Irish  had  not  abated  in  the  least  since  his 


168  LOUISA  EIBKBBIDE. 

want  of  success,  and  of  all  Irislimen  in  the  world  our  friend 
Con  was  certainly  the  one  lie  detested  most.  The  knowl- 
edge of  the  influential  position  this  young  man  was  in  the 
way  of  obtaining  in  the  police  of  the  city,  rendered  him  at 
times  furious.  For,  on  account  of  many  misdeeds,  not  yet 
known  to  any  one,  he  had  an  instinctive  dread  of  all  police 
officers.  But  when  the  dress  of  such  was  on  the  back  of  a 
true  Milesian,  the  disgust  he  experienced  at  the  mere  sight, 
nay,  at  the  thought,  was  unconquerable,  and  he  felt  neces- 
sarily drawn  to  plot  and  agitate  against  what  he  consid- 
ered the  greatest  social  evil  designed  for  his  ruin.  AYhat 
could  he  do  to  satisfy  his  hunger  and  thirst  of  revenge  % 
Evidently  he  must  have  an  interview  on  the  subject  with 
Mr.  Schwitz,  whom  we  have  left,  not  long  since,  in  the  full 
enjoyment  of  his  outlawry.  If,  in  the  great  city  of  New 
York,  there  were  men  in  secret  or  open  revolt  against  the 
guardians  of  public  safety,  Mr.  Schwitz  was  certainly  one 
of  them,  and  none  surpassed  him  in  dark  and  furious  an- 
tagonism to  peace  and  order. 

John  had  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  in  finding  him ;  for 
the  Swiss  ruffian  had  often  to  shift  his  quarters.  He  knew 
that  he  was  a  "  spotted  "  man,  and  that  at  any  moment  he 
could  be  pounced  upon,  clubbed,  manacled,  and  carried  by 
force  to  be  immured  between  the  strong  walls  of  a  peniten- 
tiary. At  last  the  "honest"  footman  found  him  in  the 
purlieus  of  Greene  Street ;  and  hoi\i  friends  could  speak  to 
each  other  in  confidence. 

"  You  must  be  thankful  to  me,  Schwitz,"  said  Mr.  John, 
*'  for  the  cleverness  of  your  rescue.  It  has  cost  me  a  gi'eat 
deal  of  trouble  and  money  ;  but  I  regret  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other,  since  the  issue  has  been  so  happy.  How  do  you 
enjoy  your  dearly  bought  liberty  V 

"It  is  rather  a  queer  liberty,"  replied  Mr.  Schwitz,  in  a 
language  which  we  must  translate  into  intelligible  English, 
"that  obliges  me  to  hide  myself,  and  to  change  my  lodg- 
ings oftener  than  once  a  week.  Yet,  I  confess,  I  prefer  it 
to  a  dungeon.  At  this  moment,  however,  you  find  me 
rather  in  a  quandary,  and  I  am  glad  you  came  ;  the  money 


THE  TRAmiNG   UP  OF  A  DETECTIVE.  169 

yon  gave  me  on  the  day  of  my  escape  is  jnsfc  ont ;  I  cannot 
engage  in  any  work  nor  earn  my  living  ;  so  that  you  must 
help  me,  or  I  will  have  to  take  some  desperate  resolution. 
I  will  not  call  on  you  any  more  after  this,  as  I  intend  to  use 
the  means  you  will  give  me  to  escape  from  this  prison  of  a 
city,  and  go  where  I  will  not  have  to  fear  the  police." 

"  I  shall  certainly  help  you  to  the  best  of  my  ability," 
generously  said  John,  "but  you  must  not  think  yet  of  leav- 
ing New  York ;  by-and-by  you  will  do  so,  and  there  will 
be  an  end  of  all  your  trouble.  But  would  you  like  to  go 
without  paying  back  in  good  coin  that  scoundrelly  Irish 
boy  who  is  the  cause  of  all  our  misfortunes  ?  There  is  a 
fine  prospect  of  reaching  him  now ;  and  if  we  do  not  use 
the  opportunity  we  have,  he  may  overreach  us  one  of  these 
days,  for  he  is  going  to  be  a  policeman,  or  rather  a  detec- 
tive of  the  worst  sort,  and,  should  we  fall  into  his  clutches, 
he  would  not  spare  us." 

"What  do  you  mean  ? "  inquired  the  outlaw. 

"  I  mean,"  answered  his  friend,  "  that  some  great  gentle- 
men have  taken  the  young  scamp  in  hand,  and  they  are 
now  training  him  to  be  a  blood-hound  in  our  pursuit." 

Mr.  Schwitz  had  not  yet  heard  this  piece  of  news,  and  it 
revived  all  his  fury  against  poor  Con  ;  for,  to  the  memory  of 
past  wrongs,  as  he  thought,  was  added  the  fear  of  future 
injuries. 

"What  can  be  done  to  prevent  the  Irish  son 

from  doing  us  further  harm  ? "  he  exclaimed. 

"Something  very  simple,"  observed  John.  "He  has 
left  the  shanty,  and  now  lives  with  his  friend,  J.  Boyle,  in 
James  Street.  There  are  not  many  Swiss  and  English  peo- 
ple in  that  quarter,  it  is  true  ;  but  at  least  his  house  there 
is  not  in  open  view  of  the  Kirkbrides  ;  and  in  the  crowded 
neighborhood  some  of  our  friends  could  very  well  meet 
without  being  perceived,  and  administer  to  the  young  fel- 
low a  dose  of  something  which  would  effectually  prevent 
him  from  ever  becoming  a  detective." 

"  I  understand,"  replied  Mr.  Schwitz,  who  now  knew  per- 
fectly the  dark  and  underhand  ways  of  committing  crime 


170  LOUISA  KLREBRLDE. 

in  populous  districts.  ^'But,"  lie  added,  ^'I  liave  no  com- 
panion to  help  me  ;  I  could  not  join  with  anybody  on  account 
of  my  foreign  accent."  He  meant  that  his  unintelligible 
jargon  had  prevented  him  from  becoming  the  open  asso- 
ciate of  robbers  and  cut-throats,  and  he  could  not  earn  his 
living  by  preying  on  society.  ''You  must  find,  John,  what 
I  cannot  find  myself." 

''I  will,"  exclaimed  the  generous  individual,  who  gave 
Mr.  Schwitz  some  loose  change  he  had  in  his  pocket,  and 
agreed  with  him  for  another  meeting  where  the  outlaw 
would  see  some  of  his  new  friends  and  arrange  everything 
with  them  for  the  intended  assault.     Then  they  separated. 

In  going  home,  however,  John  reflected  seriously  on  the 
subject,  and  saw  that  perhaps  he  had  promised  more  than 
he  could  accomplish.  In  seeking  an  interview  with  the 
Swiss,  he  thought  he  would  find  him  in  full  association 
vdth  many  other  criminals  in  the  same  position  ;  and  that 
Schmtz  himself  would  make  all  necessary  arrangements 
without  John  having  to  appear  at  all.  But  now,  owing  to 
that  barbarous  gibberish  of  his  friend's,  he  had  remained 
positively  isolated  in  the  midst  of  so  many  elements  of  dis- 
order, and  had  not  thought  even  of  making  up  to  a  simple 
pickpocket.  He,  John,  must  undertake  a  new  combination 
of  free-blades,  when  he  had  imagined  that  Schwitz  was  in 
happy  intercourse  with  a  battalion  of  them.  His  first  thought 
was  directed  toward  "Bully"  George  ;  but  he  foresaw  that 
this  gentleman,  scarcely  out  of  the  meshes  of  the  law — he 
had  just  finished  his  month  in  the  Tombs — would  be  very 
shy  of  placing  himself  within  reach  of  sheriffs  and  consta- 
bles. It  is  the  invariable  feeling  of  Englishmen  of  his  class, 
and  after  all  there  might  be  a  worse  inclination  in  the  breast 
of  such  people.  The  numerous  willing  instruments  that 
John  and  George  had  found  for  the  second  attack  on  the 
shanty,  would  scarcely  be  amenable  to  reason  after  the 
complete  failure  of  the  attemjot  and  the  judicial  punish- 
ment of  fiVQ  of  them.  The  "honest"  footman  could  not 
think  of  moving  a  foot  in  that  direction.  In  fact,  he  was 
not  himself  actually  connected  with  any  classes  of  outlaws ; 


THE  TBAmma   up  of  a  detective.  171 

George  neither  ;  and  Schwitz,  who  ought  to  be,  in  fact,  was 
not,  merely  owing  to  his  lingo.  What  could  he  do  ?  For  he 
was  determined  to  play  some  bad  trick  on  the  object  of  his 
hatred. 

He  had  to  examine  attentively  the  elements  flourishing 
around  him  in  the  Kirkbride  mansion,  and  try  to  find  there 
sombody  who  might  be  at  least  a  dumb  figure  in  the  com- 
pany of  Schwitz,  who  could,  of  course,  alone  kill  a  man 
defenseless  and  unaware.  He  could  see  no  one  but  young 
Clarke ;  the  new  man  lately  introduced  by  Mr.  Kirkbride 
had  steadily  refused  to  make  any  other  acquaintance  with 
John  than  that  of  fellow  servants  living  in  the  same  house. 
But  Clarke,  he  knew,  would  never  enter  into  a  project 
whose  end  was  blood.  He  looked  for  fun,  and  nothing  else. 
Being  himself  a  New-Yorker,  he  had  many  friends,  and 
could  find  plenty  young  fellows  of  his  class  to  help  him. 
In  that  direction  alone  John  saw  the  possibility  of  arranging 
a  plot  which  should  not  miscarry.  The  plan  he  drew  out 
for  himself  was  to  find  three  or  four  young  scamps  who 
would,  for  the  sake  of  mischievous  fun,  combine  to  attack  a 
young  man  in  the  dark  ;  while  another,  the  only  one  of  the 
gang  having  murderous  intentions,  should  carry  out  the  pro- 
gramme. We  will  not  detail  his  conversation  with  Clarke, 
who  was,  in  fact,  pining  for  something  new.  John  made  him 
believe  that  it  was  merely  a  question  of  scaring  to  death 
that  detestable  Irishman  who  had  formerly  defeated  their 
plans,  and  giving  him  a  good  drubbing  in  his  new  quarters 
in  James  Street.  The  "young  English  Yankee  "  soon  found 
three  other  boon  companions  ready  for  mischief  and  fun. 
It  was  agreed  that  Clarke  would  go  "on  the  sly"  to  exam- 
ine the  neighborhood  of  Mr.  Doyle's  residence,  in  order  to 
determine  on  the  best  plan  of  attack.  He  went  the  follow- 
ing evening,  and  was  highly  delighted  with  the  precious 
things  he  there  discovered.  The  dwelling  of  Mr.  Doyle  and 
Con  was  very  near  a  corner  of  Cherry  or  Water  Street — our 
documents  were  not  very  precise.  In  the  next  street,  at  the 
very  comer  of  James,  there  was  in  the  basement  a  low 
dancing-house  of  the  kind  so  common  in  the  district ;  three 


172  LOUISA  KIRKBUIBE, 

of  the  young  gentlemen  would  engage  in  that  health-giving 
exercise,  whilst  the  other,  placed  as  a  sentinel  on  the  side- 
walk of  James  Street,  w^ould  wait  for  the  coming  of  the 
young  Irishman.  As  soon  as  he  should  perceive  him,  he 
would  give  the  signal,  and  all  four  together,  with  Schwitz, 
would  come  out,  apparently  in  high  dispute,  all  armed  with 
strong  sticks  or  heavy  canes,  belaboring  each  other  without 
breaking  any  bones,  until,  having  poor  Con  in  their  midst, 
they  would  fall  on  him,  and  of  course  if  anything  happened, 
it  would  have  been  accident.  John  took  good  care  to  go  to 
Greene  Street  the  morning  of  the  day  appointed  for  the 
meeting,  told  Schwitz  of  the  nice  arrangements  agreed  upon, 
insisted  on  the  necessity  of  not  speaking  at  the  evening 
meeting  of  any  other  intention  but  of  a  pleasant  rumpus, 
during  which  Con  should  receive  his  deserts.  The  best 
part  of  the  project,  in  the  opinion  of  "honest"  John,  was 
that  he  would  not  have  to  appear  at  all,  since  he  furnished 
such  abundant  help  to  his  friend. 

This  abominable  plan  was  carried  out  to  the  letter ;  but 
the  providence  of  God  again  defeated  its  v/ickedness.  When 
young  Con  found  himself  in  the  midst  of  those  five  devils, 
he  instantly  recognized  his  enemy,  Schwitz.  Having  no- 
thing, not  even  his  shillelah,  to  protect  himself,  he  called 
out  openly  and  repeatedly  for  the  police  and  help,  and  saw 
directly  that  he  had  more  to  fear  from  one  than  from  all 
the  others.  Consequently  he  confronted  him  alone,  parry- 
ing his  blows  with  his  arms — and,  we  know,  he  was  great  at 
parrying.  The  skill  of  Schwitz  consisted  merely  in  striking 
hard,  and  directing  his  knocks  at  the  head  of  his  antago- 
nist ;  but  the  hand  or  arm  of  Con  was  always  in  the  way  of 
the  weapon.  The  object  of  the  young  man  was  not  only  to 
protect  his  life,  but,  if  possible,  to  seize  the  hard  stick  and 
wrench  it  from  the  hand  of  his  enemy.  Unfortunately,  the 
rage  which  animated  the  would-be  murderer  gave  to  his 
strokes  such  a  rapidity  and  violence,  that  Con  was  unable 
to  effect  his  purpose.  He  continued  to  call  for  help,  and 
many  spectators  already  crowded  on  the  oj^posite  sidewalk, 
unwilling  to  mix  up  in  the  fray.     Clarke,  with  his  three 


THE  TBAINING   UP  OF  A  DETECTIVE.  173 

friends,  struck  Con  only  on  tlie  calf  of  the  legs,  and  when 
they  saw  the  fury  of  their  chief,  they  gradually  relented, 
as  evidently  the  intentions  of  Schwitz  went  much  farther 
than  their  own. 

Mr.  Doyle,  accustomed  to  the  noise  of  many  brawls  in 
the  neighborhood,  did  not  move  at  first  from  his  seat  in 
the  next  building  ;  but  at  last,  recognizing  the  voice  of  his 
young  friend,  he  ran  to  the  window,  and,  seeing  him  in 
such  a  desperate  position,  ran  down  to  the  street,  and 
reached  it  just  at  the  moment  when  two  policemen  were 
finally  coming  from  another  quarter.  At  the  sight  of  the 
guardians  of  public  order,  Clarke  and  his  three  companions, 
throwing  away  their  canes,  flew  together,  like  four  geese, 
up  the  street  in  the  direction  of  Chatham  Square.  One  of 
the  policemen  followed  them,  and  succeeded  in  capturing 
one  of  the  young  scapegraces.  At  the  same  moment  that 
they  ran,  Schwitz,  gathering  together  all  his  fury  and  his 
strength,  seized  his  stick  with  both  hands,  and  let  fly  on 
Con' s  arm  a  final  blow,  which  broke  it  between  the  elbow 
and  the  wrist.  Then,  taking  to  his  heels,  he  ran  in  the 
direction  of  the  river,  the  policeman  after  him.  A  fine 
literary  artist  would  here  have  the  occasion  of  drawing  a 
splendid  picture  of  a  chase  which,  in  fact,  was  full  of  inci- 
dents and  hair-breadth  escapes  ;  but  we  are  a  mere  narrator 
of  events,  and  do  not  pretend  to  vmte  anything  false.  We 
will  merely  state,  therefore,  in  a  few  words,  that  the  outlaw, 
reaching  East  River  at  the  foot  of  James  Street,  saw  at  the 
wharf  a  skiff  floating  with  a  pair  of  oars  in  it,  as  if  placed 
there  by  himself  or  by  an  associate.  To  jump  into  it,  untie 
the  rope,  and  give  a  violent  kick  to  the  wooden  wharf,  was 
the  work  of  a  moment.  The  public  ofiicer  reached  the  river 
when  Mr.  Schwitz,  already  oars  in  hand,  was  plying  them 
vigorously,  and  trying  to  hide  his  skiff  between  or  behind 
the  shipping.  A  couple  of  inoffensive  bullets  were  dis- 
charged from  the  policeman's  revolver,  who  at  last  got  a 
boat  himself  and  started  in  pursuit.  But  Schwitz  was  run- 
ning for  his  life,  and  his  pursuer  was  following  on  account 
of  his  trade.    Consequently,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 


174  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

outlaw  succeeded  in  escaping,  and  found  Mmself  tlie  fol- 
lo^\dng  night  safely  ensconced  in  Ms  pleasant  retreat  of 
Greene  Street. 

We  liave  merely  to  state,  with  respect  to  him,  that  the 
positive  declaration  of  Con  apprised  the  police  of  New 
York  that  one  of  the  most  noted  criminals  was  yet  at  large 
in  the  city,  although  they  thought  he  had  left  it  long  before, 
as  he  had  never  been  seen  since  his  escape.  His  appear- 
ance so  far  down  town  only  served  to  put  the  detectives 
on  a  wrong  scent,  as  from  that  day  they  looked  for  him  in 
this  quarter,  and  not  where  alone  he  could  be  found. 

As  to  Clarke's  captured  friend,  he  was  induced  by  a  kind 
of  cunning  and  moral  force  to  declare  who  had  enticed  him 
to  join  in  that  affray.  The  young  "English  Yankee"  was, 
therefore,  brought  to  the  Tombs,  and  in  consequence  per- 
manently discharged  from  the  employ  of  the  Kirkbride 
family. 

Our  readers  will  not  be  surprised  to  hear  that  he  refused 
doggedly  to  betray  the  head  of  the  plot ;  and,  as  both  Clarke 
and  his  captured  friend,  interrogated  apart  and  in  every  pos- 
sible way,  asserted  that  they  looked  on  the  thing  as  simply 
a  piece  of  fun,  and  Con  himself,  in  his  declaration,  exon- 
erated them  from  anything  very  culpable,  they  were  only 
condemned  to  three  months  on  the  Island. 

Our  young  friend,  at  first  carried  by  Mr.  Doyle  to  his 
own  apartments,  had  his  wound  dressed  by  our  old  acquaint- 
ance. Dr.  O'Donnell,  who  pronounced  it  to  be  a  simple  frac- 
ture, requiring  a  month  and  a  half  of  rest.  The  numerous 
bruises  on  the  arms  and  legs  would  disappear  long  before 
the  expiration  of  that  term.  From  James  Street  he  was  con- 
veyed the  following  day  to  the  Sisters'  Hospital,  where  Mr. 
R.  Kirkbride  sent  a  note,  in  which  he  required  that  good 
care  should  be  taken  of  the  young  man,  and  he  took  all  the 
expense  on  himself.  The  gentleman  was  quite  surprised  to 
find  that  there  still  was  hostility  between  his  servants  and 
the  O' Byrne  family ;  but  the  idea  that  "honest "  John  could 
have  anything  to  do  with  it  did  not  even  occur  as  a  suspi- 
cion to  his  mind.     So  far,  therefore,  this  remarkable  indi- 


THE  TRAINING    UP   OF  A  DETECTIVE.  175 

vidual  continued  to  be  a  growing  argument  for  atheists 
against  the  all-supervising  providence  of  Grod.  We  will  see 
Mm  rise  higher  still  in  the  scale  of  prosperity. 

The  vile  scenes  we  have  Just  described  as  happening  in 
the  midst  of  respectable  Christian  people  may  appear  unin- 
telligible to  some  of  our  readers,  even  to  those  who  think 
they  know  New  York  best.  They  will  undoubtedly  say  : 
*'  How  could  a  man  as  estimable  as  Mr.  Doyle  most  certainly 
was,  consent  to  dwell  in  such  a  corrupt  and  degraded  neigh- 
borhood as  this  ?  How  could  he  bring  a  young  man  to  live 
with  him  there  ?  The  Fourth  Ward  is  known  throughout  the 
city  as  a  polluted  district,  where  lewdness  and  low  debauch- 
ery reign  supreme.  The  existence  of  those  vile  dancing- 
houses  is  sufficient  to  drive  away  any  man  who  respects 
himself.  This  we  cannot  understand."  We  will  feel  hap- 
py if  we  can  enlighten  those  candid  inquirers.  Let  them 
know,  therefore,  that  in  that  ''degraded"  and  ''polluted" 
and  "corrupt"  neighborhood,  are  to  be  found  numbers  of 
excellent,  most  moral  and  pious  people,  of  Milesian  origin. 
In  fact,  the  great  mass  of  the  inhabitants  dwelling  in  that 
"loathsome"  quarter  of  the  city  is  composed  of  families 
living  most  quietly,  holily,  and  piously.  They  know  and 
visit  each  other,  and  completely  ignore  the  disreputable  dens 
erected  in  their  midst.  Do  the  refined  people  of  the  upper 
wards  imagine  that  the  numerous  Irishmen  and  Irishwo- 
men, who  form  the  main  population  of  that  "  degraded  "  dis- 
trict, are  the  chief  support  of  the  wretched  establishments  of 
prostitution  and  vice,  where  discordant  orchestras  are  heard 
every  evening  and  night  ?  Let  them  be  undeceived,  if  they 
believe  so.  The  cheapness  of  rent  is  the  great  inducement 
for  many  Christian  families  to  dwell  in  contiguity  with  sin  ; 
but  sin  remains  unknown  to  them  ;  or,  if  they  are  aware  of 
its  presence,  they  turn  their  back  on  it,  know  their  way  to 
the  church,  and  never  pollute  their  feet  by  walking  down  the 
steps  leading  to  those  loathsome  cellars.  Often,  during  the 
late  hours  of  the  evening,  is  the  minister  of  Christ  called 
upon  to  assist  some  dying  Christian  of  Cherry  Street,  and 
he  wonders  at  the  purity  of  those  souls  unfolded  to  him  by 


176  LOUISA  EIBKBRIDE. 

confession ;  and  lie  cannofc  restrain  his  tears  in  performing 
the  most  solemn  rites  of  religion  to  send  to  heaven  unsnllied 
spirits  in  the  midst  of  depravity  ;  and  it  is  with  tenderness 
that  he  pronounces  the  harmonious  hopes  and  promises  of 
his  ritual,  at  the  same  time  that  he  hears,  unwillingly,  the 
jarring  notes  of  low  revelry  trying  to  mock  him  from  under 
the  ground. 

It  ought  to  be  known  now,  by  the  reports  of  the  police,  if 
they  are  impartial,  that  the  frequenters  of  these  abominable 
haunts  of  vice  are  mostly  strangers  to  the  district,  and  com- 
pletely to  the  Irish  race  ;  that  they  are  generally  sailors  or 
cosmopolitan  debauchees,  whose  only  intent  is  to  buy  cheap 
pleasures  after  having  been  unwillingly  deprived  of  them 
for  months  and  years  together ;  and  that  many  of  them  are 
actually  strangers  to  the  country  itself,  coming,  as  they  do, 
from  the  shores  of  Scandinavia  or  of  England.  These  few 
words  were  required  to  meet  a  general  misapprehension  on 
the  subject. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

BOTH  FEEDEEICK   A:N^D   CON  INTENT   ON  THE  PROSECUTION 

OF  VICE. 

Our  friend  Con  is  in  the  tender  hands  of  the  Sisters  of 
Charity,  and  he  has  scarcely  felt  the  pain  attendant  on  the 
first  surgical  operation  by  which  the  bones  of  his  forearm 
were  set.  After  this  first  moment  of  suffering,  his  position 
in  that  hospital,  on  a  nice  bed,  with  good  food,  careful  at- 
tendance, and  the  visits  of  his  relatives  and  friends,  was 
more  comfortable  than  anything  he  had  ever  experienced  in 
his  life.  The  only  trouble  was  idleness,  to  which  he  had 
never  been  accustomed.  Having  plenty  of  leisure  time,  and 
no  active  occupation  whatever,  he  had  to  fall  back  on  day- 
dreaming, or  rather  thinking  ;  car  que  faire  en  ztn  gite  d 
moins  que  Vonne  songef  as  Lafontaine  exquisitely  says. 
There  was  no  better  object  of  reflection  for  him  than  the 
varied  history  of  his  family  during  the  last  three  or  four 
months  ;  and  he  could  not  but  see  that  there  must  have  been 
an  arch-plotter  at  the  bottom  of  all  their  troubles.  From 
reflection  to  action  the  passage  was  now  impossible  ;  but  at 
least  he  could  form  projects  for  the  prosecution  of  vice  in 
New  York,  which  time  will  shortly  develop. 

As  to  Frederick,  strange  to  say,  he  was  engaged  in  the 
same  very  praiseworthy  object  of  bringing  the  guilty  to 
punishment.  Of  course  our  readers  need  not  be  informed 
that  he  had  had  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  the  last  mur- 
derous assault  planned  and  partially  executed  by  his  for- 
mer friend  "honest"  John  and  his  associates.  The  young 
gentleman  kept  aloof  from  his  father's  footman,  more 
12  177 


178  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE, 

strictly  tlian  ever,  since  the  day  of  his  nocturnal  ride  in  the 
Park.  He  had  not  needed  him  for  carrying  on  his  schemes 
after  that  night,  and  he  had  taken  most  particular  care  not 
to  let  him  know  any  of  his  doings  with  the  broker,  O'Tee, 
and  the  genial  James  Friskey.  John,  on  his  part,  kept  his 
dignity,  and  had  not  given  his  young  master  the  least  ink- 
ling of  his  last  plot.  It  is,  moreover,  very  probable  that,  had 
he  done  so,  Frederick  would  have  reproved  him  for  his 
wickedness,  and  perhaps  denounced  him  to  Mr.  Kkkbride. 
For  Frederick  had  of  late  become  extremely  moral  and  ex- 
emplary in  his  conduct.  He  labored  assiduously  at  his 
desk,  and  kept  on  the  lookout  for  breakers  and  sand- 
banks. He  was  particularly  attentive  to  the  doings  of  the 
bookkeeper.  In  the  papers  of  his  temjDorary  office  as  corre- 
sponding secretary  of  the  house,  he  found  most  valuable  in- 
dications on  the  former  indebtedness  of  several  customers 
of  long  standing ;  and  comparing  the  general  amounts  of 
many  large  transactions  with  the  various  quarterly  balances 
of  the  firm  drawn  by  the  luckless  bookkeeper,  he  became 
convinced  that  there  were  some  very  important  discrepan- 
cies. Having  written  an  abstract  of  his  observations,  he 
asked  an  interview  of  his  father  at  the  mansion,  after  din- 
ner, and  easily  obtained  it.  The  remarks  that  he  made,  and 
the  facts  which  he  produced  from  his  memorandum,  consid- 
erably shook  the  confidence  Mr.  Kirkbride  had  felt  in  the 
accountant.  But  it  was  important  not  to  act  on  mere  sur- 
mises and  conjectures  ;  positive  proofs  were  required  before 
coming  to  a  decision  on  the  subject.  Frederick  promised 
these  proofs  if  he  were  allowed  to  inspect  the  books  of  the 
house.  It  would  be  a  long  work,  tedious  and  intricate ; 
but  the  young  gentleman  would  sacrifice  his  evenings  and 
nights  to  the  good  of  the  firm.  In  order  not  to  give  a  hint 
to  the  bookkeeper  of  the  suspicions  entertained  against 
him — for  they  might  be  unfounded — it  was  agreed  that 
double  keys  of  his  office  should  be  furnished  to  Mr.  Fred- 
erick, who  would  come  back  to  the  counting-house  after 
dinner,  and  closet  himself  until  midnight,  unknown  to  every 
officer  and  employee  of  the  house.     During  a  whole  month 


FBEDERICK  AND  CON  PURSUING   THE  GUILTY.        I79 

did  the  young  gentleman  deny  himself  any  amusement  in 
the  evening  ;  and  all  this,  after  all,  only  to  satisfy  the  crav- 
ings of  two  passions  :  revenge  against  an  enemy,  and  hypo- 
crisy, to  recover  the  good  graces  of  his  father. 

The  result  was  a  most  telling  exposure  of  misdeeds  on  the 
part  of  the  bookkeeper,  extending  to  several  years  past, 
and  which  would  have  certainly  continued  for  several  years 
more,  if  not  arrested  by  Frederick's  timely  discovery.  The 
young  man  was  proved  to  be  a  defaulter  to  the  amount  of 
forty  thousand  dollars,  at  least,  and  in  the  way  of  increas- 
ing his  defalcations  to  an  amount  which  could  not  be  fore- 
seen. His  cleverness  and  sagacity  in  drawing  his  accounts 
was  remarked  at  the  time  as  extremely  ingenious,  and  al- 
most defeating  the  possibility  of  detection.  We  cannot,  in 
these  pages,  enter  into  all  the  details,  which  would  be,  no 
doubt,  of  immense  interest  to  all  the  worshipers  of  ledgers 
and  account-books.  But,  writing  as  we  do,  for  general 
readers,  who,  after  all,  do  not  care  much  for  this  interesting 
line  of  useful  knowledge,  we  pass  them  over. 

Frederick  had  rendered  such  a  service  to  the  firai  by  this 
discovery,  and  had  showed  such  a  spirit  of  abnegation  to 
attain  this  success,  that  his  previous  misdeeds  appeared  to 
be  entirely  forgotten.  Mr.  T.  Bland  and  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  firm  were  lavish  in  their  expressions  of  esteem, 
nay,  of  admu^ation ;  and  Mr.  Kirkbride  himself,  although 
not  yet  entirely  cured  of  his  mistrust,  began  to  see  his 
hopes  revive  of  finding  in  his  son  a  worthy  successor  to  his 
name  and  respectability.  To  give,  however,  a  clear  insight 
into  the  interior  feelings  of  the  gentleman,  and  show  how 
he  was  still  a  prey  to  deep-seated  anxiety,  it  is  enough  to 
mention  that  it  was  only  at  this  time  that  he  heard  by 
chance  of  the  discovery  previously  made  by  his  wife  of  the 
connection  of  his  son  with  the  young  lady,  the  pretended 
artist  in  flowers  and  birds.  Having  thought  proper  to 
speak  about  it  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  and  reprove  her  most 
gently  for  not  having  acquainted  him  with  the  affair,  he 
found  with  surprise  that  the  lady  had  been  led  to  believe 
her  son's  unblushing  tale,  when  it  was  a  matter  of  public 


180  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

notoriety  that  the  woman  was  a  very  loose  character,  and 
could  be  visited  only  by  young  men  of  very  bad  habits. 
Was  Frederick  still  a  visitor  of  the  pretended  artist  ?  Did 
he  continue  to  spend  money  on  her,  as  he  had  certainly 
done  before  ?  After  all  possible  inquiries  on  the  subject, 
Mr.  Kirkbride  could  not  obtain  any  positive  information, 
and  still  remained  under  the  load  of  uncertainty  and  doubt. 

Such  was  his  uncomfortable  state  of  mind,  when  the  ar- 
rival of  two  large  clippers,  which  had  been  sent  on  new 
ventures,  suggested  by  young  Kirkbride,  in  the  memoir  we 
have  previously  mentioned,  and  which  came  back  ^\ii\\  splen- 
did success,  opened  out  a  trade  which  was  sure  to  become 
one  of  the  most  valuable  enterprises  of  the  house.  Mr.  T. 
Bland  became  so  enthusiastic  on  the  subject,  that,  after 
several  secret  interviews  with  the  other  members  of  the  firm, 
they  agreed  to  go  in  a  body  to  the  mansion  of  their  head, 
and  ask  of  him  to  realize  the  intention  he  had  formerly  ex- 
pressed on  several  occasions,  to  introduce  his  worthy  son 
into  the  firm,  at  his  majority.  The  time  had  expired  a 
couple  of  weeks  before,  and  the  services  the  young  gen- 
tleman had  rendered  to  the  house  required  that  no  more 
delay  should  be  allowed  to  defer  the  happiness  of  all  con- 
cerned. It  is  useless  to  add  that  Mr.  Kirkbride  gave  his 
consent,  and  a  great  dinner  the  following  week  inaugurated 
the  happy  event. 

The  wear  and  tear  produced  by  all  these  incidents  on  Mr. 
Kirkbride' s  frame,  required  imperiously,  according  to  the 
unanimous  verdict  of  the  physicians,  a  period  of  rest  and 
interruption  of  business.  He  had  to  leave  New  York  be- 
fore the  usual  time.  His  son  had  taken  his  seat  at  the 
board  of  the  house  before  the  father  left,  and  appeared 
worthy  of  his  new  position.  Yet,  at  Long  Branch,  where 
Mr.  Kirkbride  went,  mental  quiet  coukl  not  return,  and  he 
was  several  times  threatened  with  serious  attacks  of  illness. 
He  imagined  a  thousand  possible  circumstances,  in  which 
his  son  found  himself  involved,  and  conjectured  that  the 
young  man,  now  freed  from  his  personal  control,  would  re- 
turn to  his  former  habits  and  renew  his  intercourse  with  his 


FREDEBICK  AN'D  COIi  PUJRSUmG   THE  GUILTY.       181 

friends  O'Tee  and  Friskey.  N^othing  could  be  more  inju- 
rious to  Lis  health,  and  more  opposed  to  his  full  recovery. 
After  having  thus  struggled  several  weeks,  unable  to  enjoy 
any  pleasure,  he  came  back  to  find  out,  to  his  satisfaction, 
that  all  his  racking  suspicions  were  perfectly  unfounded, 
and  all  reports  were  unanimous  that  Mr.  Frederick  was  a 
true  ''merchant." 

Con  O' Byrne,  meanwhile,  had  left  the  hospital,  and  re- 
sumed his  occupations  at  the  police  headquarters.  He 
began  to  be  initiated  in  all  the  intricacies  of  plans  and 
incidents,  which  form  the  constant,  daily  mental  work  of 
detectives,  and  he  soon  saw  that  in  his  own  personal  expe- 
rience he  had  a  fine  field,  where  he  could  experiment  and 
obtain  skill  in  his  profession.  The  theoretical  lessons  im- 
parted to  him  every  day,  found  so  natural  an  application  in 
the  vicissitudes  of  his  family  since  they  had  gone  to  live  up 
town,  that  he  meditated  seriously  on  the  various  incidents  so 
deeply  impressed  in  his  mind.  We  know  that  he  had  had 
plenty  of  time  to  reflect  on  the  subject,  during  his  stay  in 
the  Sisters'  Hospital.  It  was  clear  to  his  mind,  that  all  the 
attacks,  either  on  the  shanty,  or  on  his  own  person,  lately, 
came  from  the  same  arch-plotter,  and  that  this  great  mis- 
chief-brewer was  neither  Bully  George  nor  Schwitz.  He 
had  never  heard  of  young  Yankee  Clarke,  before  the  last 
attempt  on  his  life,  scarcely  knew  him  by  sight  as  an  in- 
mate of  the  mansion,  and  had  not  yet  the  least  idea  that  he 
was  one  of  those  who  had  tried  to  spirit  away  his  sister. 
But  he  had  remarked  him  attentively  during  the  affray  in 
James  Street ;  saw  that  he  was  not  a  murderer  nor  a  ruffian, 
but  merely  a  young  empty-brained  rascal  looking  for  fun. 
He  made  up  his  mind  to  have  an  interview  with  him,  and 
thought  that  he  might,  through  him,  unravel  the  mystery 
of  his  own  family  afflictions.  He  went,  therefore,  to  Black- 
well's  Island,  and  easily  obtained  access  to  the  cell  of  young 
Clarke. 

As  soon  as  he  was  seated  in  front  of  him  : 

"  You  know  me,  I  suppose,  young  man,"  he  said ;  "but 
I  beg  of  you  to  believe,  that  I  am  not  your  enemy  ;  and,  it 


182  LOUISA  KIBEBRIDE. 

is  very  possible,  that  this  interview  may  be  the  occasion  of 
procuring  your  liberty  more  than  a  month  before  your  time 
has  expired." 

"  If  you  do  this,"  answered  the  young  man,  ''  I  shall  call 
you  my  dear  friend,  for  I  am  heartily  tired  of  this  place." 

"I  may  be  able  to  do  it,"  replied  Con,  ''if  you  answer 
honestly  a  few  questions  that  I  will  put  to  you." 

''And  what  are  those  questions  \  "  asked  the  young  scape- 
grace. 

"The  first  is  this :  Did  you  not  find  yourself,  lately,  in 
the  company  of  men  much  worse  than  you,  and  intent  on 
real  murder,  when  you  thought  only  of  amusement  ?" 

"That  is  very  possible,"  said  Clarke ;  "and  I  certainly 
did  not  intend  to  kill  you  when  we  fell  on  you  in  James 
Street." 

''The  fellow  that  has  escaped,"  observed  Con,  "  Schwitz 
— for  we  know  him,  beyond  a  doubt — would  not  have  spared 
my  life,  if  I  had  not  parried  his  blows ;  but  even  he  was 
not,  I  am  sure,  the  man  who  had  concocted  the  various  at- 
tacks on  our  cottage,  on  the  honor  of  my  sister,  and  even  on 
my  life.  There  is  a  greater  villain  than  Schwitz,  and  you 
must  know  him  ;  tell  me  if  you  do  ? " 

"I  am  not  an  informer,"  said  young  Clarke,  "and  I  will 
not  answer  such  a  direct  question." 

"I  appreciate  your  feelings,"  said  Con,  "and  I  belong 
myself  to  a  race  which  has  always  felt  an  instinctive  hor- 
ror for  informers  and  spies  ;  but  timely  information  given 
against  scoundrels  who  have  no  respect  themselves  for  the 
feelings  and  rights  of  others,-  and  make  cat's-paws  of  more 
honest  fellows  like  yourself,  is  not,  after  all,  the  contemptible 
proceeding  justly  reprobated  in  the  case  of  paid  informers 
and  spies.  I  do  not  come  to  engage  you  in  a  detestable 
office,  and  to  tell  you,  '  Go  prowling  about,  meddle  with 
what  does  not  concern  you,  try  to  ferret  out  the  secrets  of 
families,  and  I  will  give  you  so  much  for  each  revelation 
obtained  through  treachery  and  deceit.'  If  I  did  you  would 
do  right  to  slap  me  in  the  face  and  send  me  about  my 
business.     But  the  case  is  this :  there's  a  villain  somewhere 


FREDERICK  AND  CON  PURSUING  THE  GUILTY.       183 

in  Mr.  Kirkbride'  s  house ;  he  has  already  done  a  great 
amount  of  mischief  through  sheer  villainy ;  without  ai3- 
pearing  prominently,  he  has  induced  others  to  engage  in 
nefarious  designs  justly  punished  by  society.  He  has 
placed  you  in  a  very  ugly  position,  by  giving  you  as  an 
associate  to  a  would-be  assassin.  Had  I  not  come  up  man- 
fully at  your  trial,  and  testified  that  you  had  no  other  inten- 
tion but  fun,  you  might  have  been  sent  to  the  penitentiary 
for  five  or  ten  years,  and  come  out  of  it  a  broken-down  man 
unable  to  engage  in  any  respectable  avocation.  The  man 
who  is  guilty  of  such  proceedings  is  a  pest  to  society,  and 
ought  to  meet  his  just  deserts  chiefly  at  the  hands  of  those 
who  have  suffered  from  him." 

''What  you  say  is  true  in  great  part,"  said  the  young 
Yankee ;  "during  the  seven  w^eeks  that  I  have  been  kept 
in  this  vile  place,  I  have  reflected  seriously  on  the  subject, 
and  I  have  made  up  my  mind  never  again  to  become  the 
tool  of  a  designing  scoundrel.  I  jjromise  you  I  never  will 
again  attempt  anything  against  your  sister,  for  I  was 
one  of  the  two  who  carried  her  away.  I  did  not  intend 
to  blast  her  character  and  do  her  permanent  injury ;  it 
w^as  only,  on  my  part,  a  freak  of  waggery,  but  not  on  the 
part  of  my  companion ;  I  see  it  now.  In  the  attack  on 
yourself,  likewise,  1  soon  became  aware  that  I  had  allied 
myself  with  a  murderer,  and  I  directly  recoiled  from  such 
a  crime.  I  will  be  more  prudent,  and  these  two  affairs  have 
taught  me  a  useful  lesson.  But  why  would  you  induce  me 
to  give  names  ?  Is  it  your  intention  to  have  the  fellow  ap- 
prehended, brought  to  court,  and  produce  me  to  testify 
against  him  ?  I  can  do  no  such  thing.  It  must  be  enough 
for  you  that  I  give  you  the  assurance  of  not  placing  myself 
again  in  the  foolish  position  of  a  cat's-paw  and  a  tool." 

''You  misjudge  me,  sir,"  Con  replied  ;  "I  do  not  intend 
to  prosecute  the  villain  for  the  past,  and  to  bring  you  for- 
ward as  a  witness  against  him  ;  but  I  wish  to  protect  my- 
self against  him  for  the  future ;  for  this  I  must  know  his 
name.  I  give  you  my  word  of  honor  that  I  will  not  use  that 
knowledge  publicly." 


184  LOUISA  KIRKBBIBE. 

'^  You  will  not,"  Clarke  said,  ''even  acquaint  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride  with  all  these  facts  %  " 

"I  will  not,"  promised  young  0' Byrne.  ''The  only 
thing  I  will  do,  will  be  to  keep  my  eyes  open  on  the  fellow, 
and  have  him  punished  for  every  future  villainy  of  which 
he  shall  be  guilty ;  but  I  won't  come  back  on  his  past  mis- 
deeds." 

"And  if,  with  these  provisos,"  added  Clarke,  "I  give 
you  his  name,  you  will  restore  me  to  liberty  % " 

"Before  to-morrow  morning,"  answered  Con. 

"Very  well,"  concluded  the  young  man  ;  "  it  is  John  the 
footman  who  has  managed  the  whole  from  the  beginning ; 
and  if  you  keep  your  eyes  upon  him,  you  will,  no  doubt, 
soon  find  him  engaged  in  some  new  intrigue  ;  but  you  must 
be  sharp,  for  he  is  a  cunning  fox,  and  knows  how  to  com- 
bine his  plans." 

This  was  the  end  of  the  conversation,  and  the  following 
day  Mr.  Clarke  was  again  free  to  move  in  his  own  native 
city,  and  on  the  lookout  for  a  new  situation. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

A  SHOET  EPISODE  OF  IMPORTAl^CE  FOE  THE  SEQUEL  OF 

THE  STOET. 

Meanwhile,  the  lieat  of  snmmer  had  come.  Not  only  the 
rich  had  all  left  the  city — they  had  not  waited  for  Jnly — but 
the  middle  classes,  nay,  the  people  en  masse  were  leaving 
home  to  go  wherever  they  thought  a  breath  of  cool  air  and  a 
sight  of  green  fields  could  be  procured.  Mr.  Kirkbride  had 
been  kept  in  the  city  much  longer  than  he  intended  by  the 
freaks  of  his  son.  Freaks  or  no,  however,  he  had  to  go,  since 
no  one  of  his  standing  can  think  of  remaining  at  home  in 
August.  But,  fortunately,  things  were  more  hopeful  now. 
Although  he  was  not  perfectly  convinced  of  the  thorough 
conversion  of  Mr.  Frederick,  still  the  young  man  seemed 
really  to  have  turned  over  a  new  leaf.  He  was  fairly  a 
partner  of  the  firm,  and  surely  this  must  have  produced  a 
change  in  him.  Every  three  months  he  would  draw  his 
dividends  ;  would  not,  consequently,  depend  for  his  amuse- 
ments on  the  trifle  of  pocket-money  given  him  by  his  father ; 
would  naturally  acquire  the  habits  of  a  man  of  business ; 
and  as  he  really  had  a  mind,  he  would  understand  that  the 
object  of  a  large  income  is  not  to  squander  it  in  trifles. 

The  physicians  Mr.  Kirkbride  consulted  advised  him  to 
spend  a  month  in  the  Adirondacks,  to  live  as  much  as  pos- 
sible in  the  open  air,  to  fish  for  trout  in  the  numerous 
brooks  of  the  country,  tramp  it  on  foot  through  glens  and 
mountains,  fowl  or  hunt,  if  he  could,  through  the  maze  of 
the  wild  forests  of  Essex  County.  He  made  up  his  mind 
to  go  alone  with  '* honest"  John,  and  leave  his  wife  and 

185 


186  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

Frederick  in  Saratoga,  where  he  would  first  spend  a  week 
with  them.  In  case  of  emergency,  Fred  could  run  to 
Essex  County,  and  be  with  him  in  a  day  or  two.  All  his 
preparations  were  already  made,  and  the  family  were  to 
start  the  following  day,  when,  on  the  last  visit  he  paid  to 
his  counting-room  in  the  morning  preceding  his  departure, 
he  received  a  call  which  soon  became  more  important  than 
he  at  first  thought. 

A  gentleman  of  middle  age,  thick-set  and  with  the  fea- 
tures of  a  Teuton,  sent  in  his  card  as  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer,  and 
was  admitted  into  his  private  office.  Being  in  a  hurry,  just 
as  Mr.  Kirkbride  was,  we  will  not  give  the  whole  dialogue 
that  ensued,  but  merely  state  the  general  run  of  the  con- 
versation. Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  was  a  lawyer,  arrived  in  New 
York  a  few  months  before  from  one  of  the  inland  counties 
of  the  State.  He  occupied  an  office  in  Wall  Street,  where 
he  attended  not  only  to  law  business  but  chiefly  to  a  general 
agency  in  real  estate.  He  had  heard  that  Mr.  Kirkbride 
gave  his  attention  to  real  estate,  when  the  speculation  was 
clear  and  sure.  He  placed  on  the  table  before  him  a  map 
lately  printed  showing  all  the  details  of  a  plot  of  ground  con- 
taining more  than  three  full  blocks,  situated  between  Eighth 
and  Ninth  Avenues  west  of  the  Central  Park,  toward  its 
northern  part.  The  position  was  wild  in  the  extreme,  as  at 
the  time  no  improvements — as  they  call  them — had  been 
carried  out  in  that  part  of  the  island  ;  but  the  attention  of 
the  great  merchant  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  Common 
Council  of  the  city  was  on  the  point  of  ordering  contracts 
on  a  large  scale  with  a  view  to  bringing  this  interesting 
locality  into  a  presentable  shape  for  the  speculator  and  the 
builder.  In  a  few  years  the  property  would  increase  ten- 
fold in  value,  and  the  proposition  Mr.  E.  Bauer  was  to 
make  to  Mr.  R.  Kirkbride  would  include  actual  conditions 
much  lower  than  actual  value.  The  estate  belonged  to  two 
minors  who  had  just  come  of  age  ;  and,  intending  to  engage 
in  a  very  lucrative  business,  they  wished  to  sell  their  prop- 
erty for  cash  ;  and  thus  all  they  asked  was  a  paid-down  sum 
of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.     They  well  knew  that  if 


A  SHORT  EPISODE  OF  IMPORTANCE.  187 

they  could  wait  a  few  years,  and  if  they  sold  their  lots 
piecemeal,  they  would  receive  a  far  greater  sum  ;  but  their 
arrangements  were  made  to  start  in  business  directly,  and 
the  sum  they  required  was  precisely  what  they  wanted. 

Mr.  Kirkbride  remarked  that  for  such  a  transaction  as 
this  he  would  wish  to  have  a  few  days,  and  all  his  prepara- 
tions being  made  to  start  the  day  after  in  the  evening,  he 
could  not  do  it,  to  his  great  regret. 

Mr.  Bauer  replied  that  a  single  day  was  enough  to  con- 
clude the  bargain.  Knowing  that  at  this  time  of  the  year  all 
merchants  were  on  the  wing,  he  had  had  the  "search  "  made 
and  "certified"  by  the  county  clerk;  and  he  thereupon 
placed  upon  the  table  a  bundle  of  papers  of  satisfactory 
appearance.  Nothing  more  was  required  than  to  appoint 
an  hour  for  signing  the  deed  and  placing  it  on  record.  His 
clients  would  be  satisfied  with  Mr.  Kirkbride' s  check  even 
after  bank  hours. 

The  merchant  was  astonished  at  the  rapidity  of  execution 
intended  by  Mr.  Bauer  ;  but  this  gentleman  observed  that, 
if  Mr.  Kirkbride  did  not  close  a  bargain  which  would  in  a 
few  years  put  millions  in  his  pocket,  he  could  soon  find 
another  who  would,  although  he  confessed  that,  to  meet 
buyers  ready  to  pay  one  hundred  thousand  on  the  spot  was 
not  without  some  difficulty.  He  would  leave  him  all  the 
papers,  and  would  call  again  at  two  o'clock  to  have  an 
answer. 

As  soon  as  he  was  off,  Mr.  Kirkbride  ran  to  his  attorney, 
and  asked  his  advice.  The  legal  gentleman  perused  in 
silence  and  with  great  attention  everything  placed  in  his 
hands,  and  inquired  for  the  name  of  the  agent  who  had 
made  the  proposal ;  the  card  was  shown  him.  He  had 
heard  of  the  gentleman  lately  arrived  in  New  York ;  his 
reputation  was  that  of  a  pushing  man,  but  not  a  sharper ; 
he  appeared  to  be  engaged  in  regular  business,  not  in 
swindling,  an  occupation  far  from  unfrequent  among  men 
of  that  class.  The  certified  search  was  all  right ;  and  there 
was  no  incumbrance  on  the  property,  except  an  insignificant 
judgment  for  a  couple  of  thousand,  which  could  be  deducted 


188  LOUISA  KIREBRIBE, 

in  tlie  check.  The  estate  itself  was  not  unknown  among 
lawyers  doing  business  in  real  estate ;  lie  had  heard  of  it, 
and  the  name  of  the  owners  mentioned  in  the  papers — tl[ie 
Messrs.  Yan  Buskirk — was  correct.  The  only  thing  of  im- 
portance in  the  material  transaction  would  be  to  be  sure  of 
their  identity  when  they  came  to  sign ;  and  he  could  give 
Mr.  Kirkbride  a  note  of  introduction  to  a  gentleman  per- 
fectly well  acquainted  with  the  Messrs.  Van  Buskirk. 

The  merchant,  in  great  glee,  ran  from  the  office  of  his 
attorney  to  the  gentleman  in  question,  whom  he  found  at 
his  desk ;  and  although,  until  that  day,  personally  unknown 
to  each  other,  they  were  perfectly  well  acquainted  by  mu- 
tual repute.  The  gentleman  was  quite  willing  to  go  to  Mr. 
Kirkbride' s  office  at  any  time  before  five,  and  meet  his 
young  friends,  if  they  should  be  there.  He  knew  that  they 
possessed  this  property,  and  was  a  little  surprised  that 
they  let  it  go  so  cheap. 

There  appeared  to  be  no  more  difficulty,  and  the  highly 
pleased  merchant  considered  this  ''speculation"  in  real 
estate  the  most  fortunate  he  had  ever  met  with.  Mr.  Ernst 
Bauer  was  back  at  two  o'clock,  as  he  had  promised,  and 
now  it  is  important  to  give  precisely  the  terms  of  the  dia- 
logue which  ensued. 

"Everything  is  satisfactory,"  said  Mr.  Kirkbride,  "and 
I  have  just  sent  word  to  my  agent,  Mr.  W.  Croft,  who  A\ill 
finish  the  transaction  with  you." 

"  This  is  not  precisely  my  view  of  the  matter,"  said  Mr. 
Bauer ;  "if  it  were  so,  my  profits  in  this  affair  would  be 
very  slight  indeed  ;  I  would  have  my  percentage  from  my 
clients  and  everything  would  be  said.  I  forgot  to  tell  you, 
sir,  this  morning,  that  to  get  the  full  advantage  of  this 
affair,  you  must  allow  me  to  be  your  agent  for  this  i:>articu- 
lar  piece  of  property.  I  am  an  honorable  man,  w^ell  known 
in  New  York,  and  perfectly  competent  to  act  as  agent.  I 
have  yet  my  fortune  to  make  ;  and  I  intend  to  make  it  hon- 
estly. So  I  have  calculated,  that  when  you  dispose,  later  on, 
of  these  lots,  my  lawful  percentage  as  your  agent,  will  put, 
perhaps,  fifty  thousand  dollars  honestly  into  my  pocket; 


A  SHORT  EPISODE  OF  IMPORTANCE.  189 

and  I  do  not  see  why  Mr.  W.  Croft,  who  has  not  been  keen 
enough  to  bring  this  transaction  to  your  notice,  should 
receive  this  amount.  I  have,  su^,  the  confidence  of  my 
clients ;  they  will  not  conclude  this  affair  without  my  con- 
sent ;  and  I  shall  not  give  it  unless  you  make  me  your 
agent  for  this  particular  piece  of  property." 

The  thing  looked  queer  to  Mr.  Kirkbride,  that  a  man 
should  oblige  him  to  take  him  as  his  agent.  Yet  the  rea- 
sons assigned  were  so  natural  and  solid,  that  he  could  raise 
no  objection,  and  he  consequently  gave  orders,  when  Mr. 
W.  Croft  should  come,  to  tell  him  it  was  a  mistake,  and  he 
was  not  wanted. 

Four  o'clock  was  the  hour  named  for  the  conclusion  of 
the  affair  ;  the  gentleman  who  had  so  willingly  consented 
to  introduce  Mr.  Kirkbride  to  the  two  young  owners  of  the 
property,  arrived  as  soon  as  he  was  wanted.  But  he  had 
reflected  on  the  foolishness  of  his  friends  in  selling  such  a 
valuable  piece  of  land  at  such  a  price ;  and  after  a  hasty 
introduction,  for  which  alone  he  had  come,  he  contrived  to 
slip  into  the  hand  of  one  of  the  young  men  a  paper,  on 
which  he  had  written  some  words  of  warning,  and  then 
hastily  departed  under  the  pretext  that  he  could  not  stay. 
Thus  he  was  completely  ignorant  of  the  end  of  the  affair, 
and  thought  it  would  miscarry  through  his  representations. 

His  paper  was  read  by  the  young  man  to  whom  he  had 
given  it,  and  passed  slyly  to  the  other ;  but  no  effect  was 
produced  by  the  warning.  They  had  already  made  all  their 
arrangements  to  start  with  their  money  by  the  next  steamer 
for  Europe,  and  there  engage  in  some  speculation,  or  per- 
haps merely  spend  in  pleasure  what  had  come  to  them 
without  effort  on  their  part.  Our  documents  on  the  subject 
are  not  clear. 

The  deed  being  signed  and  left  with  Mr.  Kirkbride,  this 
gentleman  wrote,  besides  his  check,  an  acknowledgment  of 
trust  in  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer,  for  the  peculiar  affair  in  ques- 
tion ;  and  gave  him,  as  agent,  the  papers  to  be  recorded. 
But,  as  he  was  particularly  prudent  and  careful,  he  had 
previously  told  Frederick — without  acquainting  him  with 


190  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE, 

the  business  at  all — to  follow  Mr.  E.  Bauer  to  the  county 
clerk's  office,  see  if  he  would  deposit  there  the  papers  he 
had  given  him,  and,  in  order  not  to  excite  any  suspicion, 
call  himself  for  some  documents  previously  left  in  the  office. 

Mr.  E.  Bauer  soon  remarked  that  he  was  followed.  Con- 
sequently he  was  very  particular  to  go  straight  to  the  re- 
cording office,  and  leave  with  the  clerk  the  papers  he  had 
brought ;  then  he  made  room  for  Frederick,  to  whom  he 
bowed  respectfully  and  passed  on.  But  after  walking 
around  four  or  five  blocks,  he  returned  to  the  same  place, 
told  the  young  clerk  that  some  mistake  had  been  made  in 
the  deed  which  required  correction  ;  and  promising  to  bring 
it  back  the  following  day,  thrust  it  into  his  pocket  and 
took  it  home.  Of  course  the  clerk  soon  forgot  all  about 
this  quasi-legerdemain  transaction.  Clerks  in  recording 
offices  are  mere  machines  ;  they  receive  or  give  papers  as 
they  are  brought  or  called  for,  provided  the  fee  is  paid  on 
giving  them  back.  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer's  motive  will  appear 
in  the  sequel  of  this  eventful  story. 

When  Frederick  returned  to  Beaver  Street,  his  father  was 
still  there.  He  heard  with  pleasure  that  the  papers  had 
been  left  in  proper  hands  ;  and  as  he  was  full  of  inward 
joy,  he  asked  his  son  to  ride  home  with  him :  they  would 
have  a  pleasant  talk  on  the  way.  The  young  gentleman  was 
precisely  very  desirous  of  a  conversation  with  his  father. 
He  suspected  there  was  something  serious  in  the  case  of 
these  papers  ;  and  thought  that  the  secret  would  come  out 
before  they  reached  home.  But  Mr.  Kirkbride,  who  cer- 
tainly did  his  best  to  acquaint  his  son  Avith  all  the  affairs 
of  the  firm,  particularly  now  that  he  was  a  partner,  had 
never  yet  opened  his  mouth  to  him  concerning  his  private 
and  personal  speculations ;  as  he  thought  that  to  do  so 
might  yet  be  a  temptation  for  him.  Therefore,  he  said 
nothing  of  this  ;  but  was  extremely  amiable,  and  there  ap- 
peared to  be  at  last  perfect  harmony  between  both. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

A    CATASTROPHE. 

At  the  very  time  appointed  for  their  departure,  the  fam- 
ily left  for  the  north.  It  was  high  time  for  Mr.  Kirkbride 
to  go.  So  much  anxiety  and  head-work  had  brought  back 
the  worst  features  of  his  old  Ulness.  Dr.  Dillon,  who  visited 
him  daily,  had  repeatedly  told  him,  every  time  he  saw  him 
during  the  last  fortnight,  that  perfect  rest  of  mind,  and  the 
continuous  exercise  of  a  country  life,  were  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  restore  to  his  system  an  equable  circulation  of  the 
blood,  and  prevent  it  from  rushing  to  the  head.  That  was 
the  great  danger  to  be  guarded  against.  Yet,  supposing, 
as  he  hoped,  that  it  was  still  time,  Mr.  Kirkbride  would  do 
well  to  write  his  will,  before  leaving  the  city.  The  gentle- 
man assured  the  doctor  that  he  had  already  done  so. 

Thus  they  went  away ;  and  it  was  with  great  surprise 
Con  heard  from  Julia,  the  next  time  he  saw  her,  that,  after 
remaining  a  week  in  Saratoga  with  his  wife  and  son,  Mr. 
Kirkbride  intended  to  go  farther  north,  into  a  real  wilder- 
ness, alone  with  John,  where  he  would  spend  a  full  month  ; 
and  the  doctor  was  afraid  he  would  come  back  a  corpse. 
"Very  possible,"  said  young  Con  to  himself,  thinking  more 
of  the  villainy  of  the  footman  than  of  the  inroads  of  the 
disease.  "I  must  see  to  it,"  he  added,  in  a  soliloquy.  He 
could  not  think  of  giving,  by  letter,  a  warning  to  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride himself,  who  most  probably  would  not  mind  it ;  and 
he  had  besides  given  his  word  of  honor  not  to  intimate  to 
the  gentleman  anything  of  the  past  conduct  of  his  footman. 

191 


192  LOUISA  EIREBRIDE. 

Thus  all  lie  had  to  do  was  to  appoint  a  watch  over  the  fel- 
low. What  means  should  he  take  for  such  an  object  ?  He 
could  not  leave  ^KTew  York  himself,  and  none  of  his  friends, 
the  detectives,  could  be  employed  for  such  an  affair,  as  Con 
was  unable  to  dispose  of  any  funds  for  this  purpose.  Provi- 
dence, as  usual,  came  to  help  him  out  of  his  difficulty.  Our 
readers  remember  old  Ahern,  the  policeman,  who  was  so 
useful  in  the  rescue  of  Julia.  Since  that  time  the  O' Byrnes 
and  the  Aherns  had  often  visited  each  other,  and  Con  was 
a  particular  friend  of  Jimmy  Ahern,  son  of  the  policeman, 
a  fine  young  fellow  of  seventeen,  good  chiefly  at  fishing, 
who  boasted  openly  that  he  could  challenge  five  men  to- 
gether at  MacComb'  s  Dam,  where  he  often  went,  and  that 
he  was  always  sure  to  catch  more  fish  than  his  five  antago- 
nists. He  had  heard  of  the  fine  trout  swimming  at  large  in 
the  clear  streams  of  the  Adirondacks,  and  he  had  once  told 
Con,  that  having  never  been  there,  he  felt  a  great  desire  of 
spending  a  few  weeks  in  summer  in  that  country.  The  inn- 
keeper at  MacComb' s  Dam  had  told  him  he  could  easily 
pay  all  his  expenses  by  the  fish  he  would  pack  in  ice  and 
dispatch  to  JSTew  York.  This  was  said  long  before  Mr. 
Kirkbride's  intended  trip  was  even  mooted,  but  Con  re- 
membered it  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  it.  He  went,  therefore, 
straight  to  Jimmy,  and  without  acquainting  him  with  the 
previous  misdeeds  of  John,  merely  said  that  he  had  reason 
to  fear  the  fellow  might  injure  his  master  in  that  wilderness 
where  they  would  be  often  alone.  Should  young  Ahern  go 
there  to  fish,  he  would  at  the  same  time  keep  an  eye  on  the 
footman,  and  he  might  render  to  the  family  a  service  which 
was  sure  to  be  amply  rewarded.  All  this  chimed  in  admi- 
rably with  the  anxious  desires  of  the  young  man,  who  only 
asked  to  be  informed  at  what  hotel  Mr.  Kirkbride  lodged 
at  Saratoga,  and  on  what  day  he  was  to  start  for  the  north. 
Precise  information  on  the  subject  was  furnished  by  Julia, 
and  just  at  the  moment  that  John  was  taking  his  master's 
valise,  at  Saratoga,  to  go  to  the  raih^oad  depot,  he  saw  a 
young  fellow  with  a  small  carpet-bag  in  hand  planted  at  the 
door  of  the  hotel,  who  followed  him  shortly  after  and  took 


A  CATA8TB0PHE.  193 

a  seat  a  few  steps  behind  Mm  in  the  cars.  John,  however, 
was  far  from  suspecting  that  he  would  be,  during  the  fol- 
lowing month,  closely  followed  by  the  same  shadow.  The 
way  Jimmy  did  it  all  along  was  this  :  At  Whitehall,  where 
they  left  the  cars  for  the  boat ;  and  at  Ticonderoga,  where 
they  left  the  boat  to  take  a  carriage ;  and  at  all  the  stop- 
ping places,  Jimmy,  without  ever  asking  a  question,  loitered 
in  the  various  inns  where  they  stopped  and  easily  heard 
from  several  servants  that  the  gentleman' s  baggage  was  to 
be  directed  to  such  and  such  a  place  ;  then  the  young  Irish- 
man fell  back,  took  his  own  means  of  reaching  the  indicated 
spot,  either  on  horseback  or  on  foot,  and  he  always  arrived 
before  the  party  left  for  another  locality.  Thus  he  finally 
became  a  lodger  with  them  in  the  last  rural  inn  designed 
for  the  residence  of  the  gentleman.  John  was  at  last  an- 
noyed by  the  constant  appearance  of  the  detested  Milesian  ; 
but  Mr.  Kirkbride  did  not  even  remark  it.  The  instruc- 
tions for  future  emergencies  given  by  Con  to  Jimmy  were 
merely :  not  to  get  into  a  private  quarrel  with  the  footman  ; 
if  fortunate  enough  to  fall  into  conversation  with  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride, either  in  the  inn  or  on  some  fishing  excursion,  not  to 
mention  to  the  gentleman  any  of  his  suspicions  on  the  sub- 
ject of  John,  as  he  was  not  to  be  mentally  disturbed  in  the 
least ;  only  to  keep  his  eyes  on  the  footman,  and  at  the  first 
open  misdeed  pounce  upon  him,  and  openly  show  his  proofs, 
if  he  had  any  to  give ;  if  not,  to  be  very  chary  of  any  out- 
break. All  these  instructions  were  full  of  good  sense,  and 
Jimmy  was  always  faithful  to  them  ;  so  that  John,  in  spite 
of  the  annoyance  he  felt,  never  found  a  motive  of  open 
quarrel  with  the  young  man  who  evidently  was  spying 
him.  This  kept  him  in  check  ;  and  it  was,  indeed,  a  salu- 
tary restraint. 

After  a  few  days  of  rambles  in  the  neighborhood,  of  fish- 
ing in  the  many  brooks  around,  and  of  rest  in  the  rural 
cottage  dignified  with  the  name  of  "hotel,"  Mr.  Kirkbride 
began  to  feel  a  great  change  for  the  better,  and  gave  him- 
self with  less  restraint  to  the  simple  pleasures  of  his  new  sit- 
uation. Meanwhile,  Jimmy  had  already  acquired  a  repu- 
13 


194  LOUISA  KIBKBBIDE. 

tation  for  success  in  fishing,  as  he  brought  home  every  day 
a  large  number  of  splendid  trout. 

"  Young  man,"  said  Mr.  Kirkbride  to  him  one  day,  ^'you 
must  give  me  a  lesson  in  fishing." 

*'With  great  pleasure,"  answered  Jimmy;  ''but  you 
must  come  with  me  to  a  very  wild  spot  which  I  have  dis- 
covered lately." 

The  project  was  agreed  upon,  and,  after  a  night  of  sound 
sleep,  they  left  the  inn  early  the  following  day,  for  the 
lonely  recess  in  the  woods,  where  the  young  Irishman  had 
been  so  successful  two  days  before.  It  was  at  the  end  of  a 
glen,  surrounded  by  woods  on  all  sides,  a  very  solitude  in 
the  midst  of  a  wild  country  ;  nothing  was  heard  but  the 
chirping  of  crickets  and  the  singing  of  birds ;  if,  however, 
you  lay  down  at  full  length  on  the  grass,  and  listened  atten- 
tively, you  could  be  lulled  to  sleep  by  the  indistinct  but 
harmonious  buzzing  of  myriads  of  insects  which  filled  the 
air  and  the  bushes  around. 

''  Here  it  is,"  exclaimed  Jimmy;  ''there  is  nothing  like  it 
in  the  neighborhood  of  MacComb's  Dam,  and  I  think  there 
are  more  fish  in  this  stream  than  pass  every  day  under  the 
arches  of  the  High  Bridge." 

"  So  you  are  a  NeAv- Yorker  !  "  laughingly  exclaimed  Mr. 
Kirkbride. 

"  Beg  your  pardon,  sir,"  replied  the  young  man,  "I  was 
born  in  Connaught,  but  have  been  transplanted  by  the  mis- 
fortunes of  my  country  on  the  muddy  banks  of  the  Harlem 
Kiver." 

"Glad  to  hear  you  are  an  Irishman,"  remarked  the  gen- 
tleman ;  "  I  have  a  whole  tribe  of  them  near  my  house  in 
Madison  Avenue." 

"  I  know  it,  sir,"  said  Jimmy.  "Cornelius  0' Byrne,  with 
whom  I  know  you  are  acquainted,  is  a  great  friend  of  mine  ; 
I  have  sent,  sometimes,  to  the  family,  suckers  from  the  Har- 
lem River  ;  I  intend  to  send  them  one  of  these  days  trout 
from  the  streams  of  the  Adirondacks  ;  they  will  not  com- 
plain of  the  change,  I  am  sure." 

These  pleasant  allusions  put  Mr.  Kirkbride  quite  at  ease. 


A   CATASTROPHE.  195 

"WTieii  first  he  came  to  the  lonely  spot,  he  remarked  the 
wildness  of  the  surroundings,  and  thought  it  the  very  place 
for  a  murderer  to  kill  his  victim,  so  that  he  looked  on  John 
as  a  real  protection  in  case  of  any  bad  design  lurking  in  the 
mind  of  a  young  fellow  with  whom  he  had  made,  perhaps, 
too  free.  But  he  directly  became  perfectly  sure  of  his  new 
acquaintance,  and  would  have  intrusted  all  the  money  and 
valuables  he  had  brought  with  him  to  the  keeping  of  the 
young  man. 

^' John,"  he  exclaimed,  ''I  am  at  home  here  ;  go  to  the 
inn  and  see  that  my  dinner  is  prepared  for  two  ;  and  if  you 
have  anything  to  do  in  the  neighborhood,  you  may  take  the 
advantage  of  it,  as  I  do  not  want  you."  ''Honest"  John 
bit  his  lips,  and  departed. 

The  morning  was  spent  most  pleasantly  by  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride,  who  declared  he  was  now  a  fisherman,  and  knew  all 
the  tricks  of  the  trade  ;  a  large  basket  Jimmy  had  brought 
with  him  was  filled  to  repletion  with  the  finny  "beauties." 
Jimmy  asserted  that  it  was  Mr.  Kirkbride  who  had  caught 
them  all,  and  insisted  that  they  should  be  sent  by  the  next 
express  to  Saratoga,  where  the  gentle  lady  would  admire 
her  husband' s  skill  in  fishing. 

"Very  well  for  this  time,"  said  the  gentleman,  "but  as  I 
know,  young  man,  that  your  purse  is  not  so  well  filled  as 
mine,  you  will  allow  me,  when  we  return,  to  tell  the  inn- 
keeper to  address  to  me  your  bill  of  expenses  at  the  end  of 
our  happy  sojourn  in  this  place.  On  this  condition  alone 
do  I  accept  your  gift,  for  which  you  may  be  sure  I  will  feel 
thankful  to  you." 

James  Ahern  could  not  object  much  to  this  arrangement, 
and  the  consequence  was  that  John  was  nearly  superseded 
by  Jimmy,  and  had  very  poor  i:>rospects  of  succeeding,  if 
he  had  entertained  any  dark  projects  at  all. 

Other  expeditions  of  the  kind  succeeded  each  other  the 
following  days,  and  the  health  of  the  merchant  improved 
rapidly.  He  often  received,  of  course,  letters  from  his  wife, 
which  at  first  amused  him  hugely,  owing  to  the  naitete  with 
which  the  lady  related  many  very  strange  anecdotes  which 


196  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

formed  the  staple  of  conversation  at  Saratoga.  He  would 
have  been  highly  pleased  to  get  a  missive  of  this  kind  every- 
day. Unfortunately,  there  was  no  post  office  nearer  the  inn 
than  ten  miles,  and  the  mail  was  brought  only  twice  a  week 
on  horseback.  But  it  was  a  compensation  to  receive  two  or 
three  letters  at  once. 

After  a  while,  however,  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  communications 
became  less  exuberant  with  sprightliness,  and  there  appeared 
some  embarrassment  in  her  way  of  writing.  Before  leaving 
Saratoga,  he  had  earnestly  begged  of  his  wife  to  keep  her 
eyes  open  on  Frederick,  and  to  state  plainly  in  her  letters 
whatever  unpleasant,  or,  chiefly,  whatever  bad  feature  she 
might  discover  in  the  young  man' s  conduct.  ' '  Do  not  be 
afraid  to  disturb  my  quiet  of  mind,"  he  had  said.  ''Any- 
thing I  might  merely  suspect,  without  any  positive  state- 
ment of  yours,  would  be  much  more  likely  to  injure  my 
health.  I  would  directly  imagine  a  thousand  things  worse 
than  the  truth,  and  it  might  kill  me."  Yet,  in  spite  of  this, 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  really  unwilling  to  relate  what  she  had 
lately  discovered,  through  fear  of  striking  her  husband  to 
the  heart.  He  saw  something  of  the  kind  in  one  of  her 
communications,  and  he  wrote  her  directly  a  pretty  long 
letter,  in  which  he  stated  his  suspicions,  and  added  :  "Have 
no  fear  of  me,  most  dear  Louisa.  I  am  now  strong,  and  can 
bear  a  shock  ;  my  health  is,  I  think,  completely  restored, 
owing  to  the  open  air  of  the  country,  the  nice  rambles,  and 
fishing  excursions,  but  especially  the  company  of  a  young 
Irishman,  who  revives  me  by  his  talk,  and  fills  my  basket 
with  his  fish  ;  it  was  from  him,  in  fact,  that  you  received 
those  I  sent  you  a  few  days  ago.  If  Frederick's  conduct  is 
bad,  I  must  know  it.  Be  sure  it  is  most  important  for  you, 
for  me,  and  even  for  the  poor  miserable  boy.  I  enjoin  upon 
you  to  declare  the  whole  truth." 

This  letter  received  an  answer  most  pointed  and  crushing, 
for  the  heart  of  the  good  lady  was  deeply  wounded,  and  in 
writing  the  truth  she  could  not  but  express  it  in  feeling 
terms.  Without  giving  the  very  words,  we  will  briefly  re- 
late the  facts.     Our  readers  know  that  all  the  great  Saratoga 


A  CATASTROPHE.  197 

hotels  are  snrronnded  by  luxurious  cottages,  rented  to  fam- 
ilies during  the  season.  Among  those  which  embellished 
the  gardens  of  the  vast  public  palace  where  the  Kirkbride 
family  resided,  there  was  one  smaller,  but  much  more  beau- 
tiful, comfortable,  and  better  kept  than  any  other.  It  was 
occupied  by  a  young  lady,  who  had  with  her  only  a  female 
servant.  The  eyes  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  hotel  were, 
of  course,  from  the  first,  directed  on  the  nymph' s  dwelling 
in  this  small  paradise.  Everybody  remarked  her  beauty, 
the  perfect  good  taste  of  her  attire,  and  the  refined  air  of 
her  manners.  Who  she  was  no  one  could  tell.  Several 
young  men  appeared  to  be  acquainted  with  her,  and  among 
others,  Frederick  Kirkbride,  but  none  of  them  satisfactorily 
answered  the  question  often  addressed  to  them  :  "Do  you 
know  who  she  is  ?  "  They  saluted  her  when  they  met  her, 
sometimes  sat  with  her  on  some  of  the  seats  scattered  in  the 
open  grounds,  and  whenever  there  was  a  Jiop  in  the  evening, 
many  young  bloods  contended  for  her  hand  in  the  dance. 
Yet  she  had  neither  husband,  nor  father,  nor  brother  known 
to  any  one.  This  could  not  but  excite  suspicion  ;  still,  her 
whole  conduct  was  so  becoming  and  lady-like  that  for  a 
whole  fortnight  scandalous  tongues  could  not  wag  on  her 
account. 

But  at  last  she  began  to  give  suppers  after  the  balls,  and 
her  cottage  was  alive  until  the  following  morning  with  many 
of  the  young  men  residing  at  the  hotel.  This  conduct  could 
not  be  excused,  and  the  lookout  kept  on  her  by  many  keen 
eyes  was  sharper  and  severer  than  before.  Finally,  all  Sara- 
toga became  acquainted  with  her  history.  She  belonged, 
in  truth,  to  the  demi-monde,  and  it  was  at  Frederick's  ex- 
pense that  she  led  such  a  life  of  costly  pleasure.  Yet  she 
was  not  the  lady  artist  whom  the  same  young  gentleman 
visited  formerly  ;  his  taste  now  aimed  much  higher,  but  his 
purse  had  also  to  be  depleted  more  thoroughly.  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride was  the  last  to  know  all  these  circumstances,  and  she 
would  have,  perhaps,  remained  in  happy  ignorance  of  them, 
had  not  something  happened  which  she  could  not  but  hear, 
even  in  her  seclusion.     Mr.  James  Friskey,  then  in  the 


198  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

height  of  Ms  prosperity,  paid  a  flying  visit  to  Saratoga,  and 
nearly  the  whole  time  he  was  there  remained  in  the  com- 
pany of  Frederick,  and  spent  the  only  evening  of  his  sojonrn 
at  the  Springs  among  the  golden  society  of  the  mysterious 
cottage.  Concealment  was  no  longer  possible ;  the  poor 
lady  herself  heard  of  the  notoriety  of  her  son.  It  was 
shortly  after  this  she  received  the  letter  from  her  husband 
mentioned  above,  and  before  answering  it  she  wished  to 
know  what  her  son  could  say.  In  a  short  conversation  she 
had  with  him,  she  learned  from  his  very  lips,  ''that  it  was 
true  he  loved  the  young  lady,  but  did  not  intend  to  marry 
her ;  he  was  a  young  man,  and  must  amuse  himself  after 
his  hard  labors  at  the  desk.  The  money  he  spent  was  law- 
fully earned ;  it  was  the  dividend  he  had  received  before 
leaving  New  York,  as  partner  of  the  firm.  As  to  the  pub- 
lic appearance  of  Mr.  Friskey  with  him,  he  could  not  help 
it ;  that  young  gentleman  had  come  unbidden  by  him  ;  he 
could  not  repel  his  advances,  and  had  to  extend  to  him  the 
common  courtesies  of  life." 

This  was  the  substance  of  the  news  Mr.  Kirkbride  re- 
ceived. His  first  impulse  was  to  leave  the  Adirondacks 
and  return  to  Saratoga  ;  happy  had  he  done  so  !  But  on 
second  reflection  he  thought  this  would  be  equivalent  to  an 
exposure  of  his  private  family  difliculties.  He  must  remain 
some  longer  time  in  the  country  and  leave  it  only  at  the 
time  previously  appointed.  But  he  had  to  take  immediate 
measures  to  alter  the  will  he  had  placed  in  the  hands  of  his 
attorney  before  leaving  New  York.  He  sent  John  directly 
for  the  nearest  lawyer  of  some  reputation  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  made  up  his  mind,  at  the  suggestion  of  this  gen- 
tleman, to  execute  only  a  codicil,  which  would,  in  fact, 
change  the  whole  will.  This  he  did  the  day  after  he  re- 
ceived the  last  letter  from  his  wife.  "  Honest "  John  could 
not  but  enjoy  the  privileges  of  a  valet,  and  heard  many 
words  which  revealed  to  a  man,  as  acute  as  he  was,  the  state 
of  the  whole  case  ;  but  he  could  not  help  the  cause  of  Mr. 
Frederick,  and  saw  his  master,  after  the  drawing  up  of  the 
paper,  place  it  in  a  letter  to  his  attorney,  and  put  it  in  a 


A  CATASTROPHE.  199 

pocket  nearest  to  his  heart.  The  mail  had,  nnfortnnately, 
gone  the  evening  previous,  and  he  had  to  wait  three  full 
days  before  he  could  send  the  package. 

Meanwhile  he  was  a  prey  to  the  most  painful  anxiety  of 
mind  ;  all  the  rest  he  enjoyed  before  had  fled  ;  his  former 
malady,  which  he  thought  almost  cured,  returned  instantly  ; 
and  he  saw  that  to  prevent  a  sudden  attack  he  ought  to  try 
again  the  open  air,  and  the  amusing  company  of  James 
Ahern.  This  he  did  the  very  morning  after  his  interview 
with  the  lawyer.  He  requested  John  to  bring  with  him  to 
the  woods  the  most  interesting  novel  w^hich  had  lately  ap- 
peared, together  with  some  doses  of  his  usual  medicines,  to 
regulate  the  circulation  of  the  blood  ;  and  the  three  started 
together  for  the  open  country. 

It  was  already  the  beginning  of  September,  and  for  the 
last  three  weeks  scarcely  a  few  drops  of  rain  had  fallen.  The 
ground  was  parched,  vegetation  drooi3ing  ;  the  shrubs  and 
smaller  plants  let  their  half- withered  blossoms  fall  mourn- 
fully on  the  dried  stems ;  the  large  trees  no  longer  wore 
the  bright  green  livery  of  the  summer,  the  color  of  the 
leaves  had  changed  to  a  dtill  metallic  brown.  The  birds 
were  either  absent  or  remained  silent  and  motionless  on  the 
withering  twigs.  The  atmosphere  was  heavy  with  thick 
dry  vapors  ;  the  heat,  at  ten  o'  clock,  was  already  intense, 
and  the  melancholy  stillness  of  all  nature  seemed  to  pre- 
sage a  storm. 

Mr.  Kirkbride,  however,  went  out  with  his  footman  and 
Jimmy.  John  appeared  reserved,  and  kept  on  his  dignity ; 
and  the  young  Irishman  tried  in  vain  to  revive  the  spirits  of 
the  gentleman.  Dejected  and  melancholy,  Mr.  Kirkbride 
complained  of  a  dull  headache  ;  but  he  thought  that  along 
the  stream  he  would  find  some  air  stirring,  and  a  compara- 
tive freshness  which  might  do  him  good.  The  lines  were 
carelessly  thrown  into  the  water ;  but  the  trout,  as  inactive  as 
the  rest  of  animated  nature,  did  not  mind  the  bait,  and  with 
all  his  skill  young  Ahem  could  scarcely  obtain  one  or  two 
unsuccessful  bites.     After  an  hour  or  so  of  sad  depression 


200  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

of  spirits  and  a  dull  want  of  activity,  Mr.  Kirkbride  told 
James  Ahern  that  if  he  went  to  some  better  locality  he 
might  be  more  lucky  ;  meanwhile  he  would  himself  try  to 
read,  and  after  an  hour  more  they  might  go  back  to  the  inn. 
The  novel  the  footman  had  brought  was  a  French  one  of 
the  modern  school — Mr.  Kirkbride  could  read  French  cur- 
rently. To  tell  the  truth,  it  was  the  story  of  a  courtezan. 
'  With  all  possible  accomplishments,  the  noted  young  wo- 
man led  a  life  of  shame  in  the  company  of  a  young  spend- 
thrift. She  was  endowed  with  all  imaginable  virtues  ;  and 
the  only  weakness  which  she  could  be  reproached  with  was, 
in  fact,  the  necessary  background  to  bring  forward  all  her 
admirable  qualities.  The  wealth  of  California  thrown  at  her 
feet  was  scarcely  worthy  of  her,  and  the  young  man  who 
spent  his  fortune  to  amuse  all  her  caprices  was  but  too 
happy  to  be  thought  worthy  of  ruining  himself  for  such  a 
divine  being.' 

At  the  moment  the  gentleman  was  reading  this  stuff,  the 
thought  of  his  wife's  last  letter  could  not  but  come  back  to 
his  mind.  It  was  a  fearful  and  fatal  instant.  With  disgust 
and  horror,  throwing  the  book  into  the  water,  he  fell  down, 
struck  with  hemiplegy,  and  remained  panting  on  the  ground, 
his  face  distorted,  his  chest  heaving,  the  whole  right  side 
paralyzed,  at  the  mercy  of  ''honest"  John,  who  stood  ob- 
serving him  a  few  feet  distant.  The  rascally  valet  knew 
some  of  the  symptoms  of  the  frightful  disease,  and  under- 
stood the  whole  case  at  once.  Aware  of  the  sudden  uncon- 
sciousness produced  by  a  fit  of  such  fatal  power  as  this,  he 
fumbled  in  his  master's  pockets,  took  away  the  letter  he 
had  seen  him  place  there  ;  and,  hurriedly  transferring  to  his 
own  pocket  several  handfuls  of  bank  bills  he  found  on  his 
person,  he  left  him  for  a  moment,  ran  in  the  direction  James 
Ahern  had  taken,  and  calling  him  lustily,  he  brought  him 
to  the  spot,  and  told  him  in  a  few  words  the  terrible  acci- 
dent which  had  just  happened.  Two  other  men,  brought  in 
due  time  from  the  inn,  made  a  hand-barrow  of  some  branches 
of  trees,  and  with  the  help  of  John  and  James,  the  unfortu- 
nate gentleman  was  carried  home  and  placed  on  his  bed. 


DEATH     OF     RALPH     b.     KIRKBRIDE, 


A  CATASTROPHE.  201 

A  messenger,  sent  directly  to  the  nearest  physician,  several 
miles  distant,  brought  one  who  arrived  just  four  hours  after 
the  attack,  too  late  to  be  of  any  service  ;  and  in  spite  of 
bleeding  and  calomel  applied  dutifully  by  the  doctor,  it 
was  clear  that  in  a  few  days  at  most,  Mr.  Kirkbride  would 
be  a  corpse. 

James  Ahem  had  no  idea  of  apoplexy,  and  his  first 
thought  was  that  John,  left  alone  with  Mr.  Kirkbride,  had 
dealt  him  a  blow  intended  to  produce  immediate  uncon- 
sciousness and  ultimately  death.  He  reproached  himself 
bitterly  for  having  obeyed  the  gentleman  and  abandoned 
him  in  the  woods.  Had  not  the  footman  at  least  abstracted 
something  important  from  the  person  of  his  master  ?  But 
the  young  Irishman  could  think  only  of  money  and  valua- 
bles, and  he  saw  the  gold  watch  and  chain  still  hanging 
around  Mr.  Kirkbride' s  neck,  and  several  costly  rings  still 
glittering  on  his  fingers.  He  could  not  accuse  John  of  theft ; 
but  he  might  have  inflicted  a  murderous  blow  for  some  pur- 
pose of  his  own,  and  perhaps,  horrible  to  relate,  to  forward 
the  dark  designs  of  Mr.  Frederick,  of  whom  he  had  heard 
from  Con.  He  thought  it,  therefore,  his  duty  to  take  the 
doctor  apart  and  ask  him  mysteriously  if  the  dangerous 
state  of  the  gentleman  could  not  be  the  result  of  some 
assault  from  the  servant,  as  he  knew  the  fellow  might  be 
suspected  of  an  attack  of  some  kind.  But  the  physician 
immediately  set  at  rest  this  supposition,  and  even  rebuked 
the  young  man  for  suspicions  which  he  thought  could  not 
be  explained  but  by  a  secret  grudge  against  a  fellow  ser- 
vant. On  breaking  up  the  private  conference  with  Jimmy, 
the  physician  said  aloud,  so  as  to  be  overheard  by  John 
himself  :  "-  No,  sir  !  I  am  confident  the  servant  has  done  his 
duty  to  his  master ;  he  has  helped  to  transfer  him  quietly 
here  and  to  call  me  as  soon  as  practicable  ;  he  could  do 
nothing  more." 

''Honest"  John  had  here  a  fine  opportunity  of  estab- 
lishing his  rightful  claim  to  the  title  originally  given  him 
by  the  mistress  of  the  house,  and  the  look  he  cast  on  the 
young  Irishman  was  such  that  Mr.  Ahern  thought  it  pru- 


202  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

dent  for  himself  to  disappear  and  return,  crestfallen,  to  New 
York.  The  footman  was,  therefore,  left  alone  to  send  a 
hasty  dispatch  to  Mr.  Frederick,  and  to  receive  this  young 
gentleman  when  he  arrived,  two  days  later,  a  fuU  twenty- 
four  hours  before  the  broken-hearted  wife  could  be  there 
herself. 

The  unfortunate  merchant  was  breathing  yet,  but  sink- 
ing rapidly,  when  Mrs.  Kirkbride  came  to  impress  burning 
kisses  on  his  cheeks,  and  to  bathe  with  her  tears  his  face 
and  his  hands.  We  turn  away  from  her  a  moment,  to 
listen  to  the  private  conversation  between  the  new  ^'head 
of  the  house"  and  the  valet.  It  took  place  just  a  couple  of 
hours  after  Frederick  had  arrived.  He  had  already  had 
time  to  take  possession  of  everything  he  found  in  the  rooms 
of  his  father,  and,  among  other  things,  to  throw  a  glance  on 
all  the  letters  of  his  mother,  including  the  last,  which  he 
perused  entire.  As  soon  as  this  first  operation  was  accom- 
plished, the  young  "heir"  called  to  a  private  room  of  the 
hotel  the  lucky  footman,  elated  at  the  time  by  the  knowl- 
edge that  he  held  a  document  which  made  him,  in  fact, 
"master  of  the  situation."  The  young  gentleman,  as  yet, 
knew  nothing  of  this,  and  he  had  determined  within  him- 
self to  act  as  the  head  of  the  house,  not  to  inspire  too  high 
aspirations  in  the  mind  of  his  servant,  but  to  continue  to 
keep  him  as  his  tool  in  an  inferior  capacity. 

"Well,  John,"  said  Frederick,  "as  you  alone  were  pres- 
ent at  the  sad  accident  which  befell  my  poor  father,  please 
tell  me  the  whole  story,  as  I  cannot  but  take  a  deep  interest 
in  everything  concerning  him  ;  the  sudden  news  has  pro- 
foundly saddened  me  ;  and  my  disconsolate  mother  is  com- 
ing, and  must  hear  from  me  everything  connected  with  the 
mournful  event." 

"The  affair  is  soon  told,"  answered  John.  "Your  father 
was  doing  first-rate,  and  was  fast  recovering  his  health, 
when  he  received  a  letter  from  your  mother,  which  directly 
produced  an  awful  change  in  him.  He  sent  me  right  away 
for  the  nearest  lawyer,  and,  when  the  gentleman  had  ar- 
rived, they  sat  at  work  together  for  a  couple  of  hours.    I 


A  CATASTROPHE.  203 

am  not  an  eavesdropper ;  but,  in  the  comings  in  and  goings 
out,  I  could  not  help  hearing  many  things ;  and,  to  tell  you 
the  simple  truth,  in  as  many  words,  I  am  confident  that  the 
coming  of  the  lawyer  was  either  for  your  father  to  write  a 
new  will,  or,  at  least,  to  change  the  one  he  had  made  be- 
fore, so  as  to  deprive  you  of  the  most  part,  if  not  the  whole, 
he  first  intended  to  leave  you.  This  I  know  for  a  certainty. 
The  day  after  this  important  event,  your  father  expressed  a 
wish  to  go  fishing,  as  usual,  and  took  with  him  myself  and 
a  spy  of  an  Irishman,  who,  fortunately,  was  not  present 
when  the  accident  happened  to  Mr.  Kirkbride.  The  acci- 
dent was  merely  this  :  he  was  reading  a  French  novel  at  the 
time ;  suddenly  he  threw  it  into  the  water,  and  fell  pros- 
trate on  the  ground,  unconscious,  and  panting  for  breath. 
We  transferred  him  to  his  bed,  and  I  called  the  nearest 
doctor,  who  will  be  able  to  explain  the  whole  affair  to  you 
better  than  myself." 

''This  story  seems  very  strange  to  me,"  remarked  Mr. 
Frederick.  "Had  my  father  written  another  will,  it  would 
certainly  be  found  among  his  papers  in  his  room,  and  it  is 
not  there." 

''Certainly  it  is  not  there,"  retorted  ''honest"  John; 
"yet  it  exists.  But  perhaps  you  will  suspect  me  of  foul 
practice,  as  that  fool  of  an  Irishman  did,  who  imagined  I 
had  given  a  blow  to  Mr.  Kirkbride,  but  to  whom  the  doctor 
answered  so  well  that  he  had  to  fly,  and  probably  he  is  still 
running  at  this  time." 

Mr.  Frederick,  in  a  high  state  of  interior  excitement, 
which  he  did  his  best  not  to  show,  sternly  addressed  to 
John  these  few  words  : 

"As  you  were  alone  acquainted  with  all  these  circum- 
stances, I  must  hold  you  responsible  for  the  existence  of 
that  legal  instrument." 

"I  see,"  replied  John,  "that  I  must  speak  plainly  to 
you.  I  have  that  new  will  or  whatever  it  is ;  I  took  it 
from  the  pocket  of  your  father  directly  after  the  acci- 
dent, through  fear  that  it  might  drop  on  the  ground  and 
be  lost.     I  know  that  it  takes  away  a  good  part  of,  if  not 


204  LOUISA  KntKBRLDE, 

all,  his  property  from  you,  and,  if  you  are  not  amenable 
to  sense,  I  shall  see  that  it  is  deposited  in  the  hands  of  the 
person  to  whom  it  is  addressed,  namely,  your  father's 
attorney." 

This  was  a  blow  to  Frederick,  whose  passions  were  sud- 
denly fearfully  excited,  and  who  might  have  shot  the  foot- 
man on  the  spot,  had  he  not  checked  himself  from  indulging 
in  such  a  fit  of  madness. 

''  What  do  you  mean  by  ^amenable  to  sense'  ?"  said  the 
young  scamp  to  the  footman. 

*'I  mean,"  replied  John,  ''that  you  will  secure  me  a 
respectable  position  in  your  house  when  you  are  at  the 
head  of  it,  and  not  ask  me  to  wear  again  the  livery  of  a 
footman." 

''  It  was  precisely,  my  dear  fellow,  what  I  intended  to 
do,"  said  the  young  gentleman;  ''you  were  my  father's 
footman,  but  I  know  that  your  talent  is  far  above  that  em- 
ployment. When  I  have  a  house,  you  will  find  yourself  in 
a  very  respectable  and  comfortable  position,  I  assure  you. 
As  my  confidential  agent  you  will  have  many  opportunities 
of  bettering  your  condition,  and  leading  a  gloriously  happy 
life.'' 

"We  understand  each  other,"  said  "honest"  John. 
"Do  not  forget  what  you  have  just  said,  or  I  should  be 
obliged  to  remind  you  of  it  in  a  very  disagreeable  way. 
Here  is  the  document  destined  to  make  you  a  happy  and 
rich  man,"  and  he  handed  to  Mr.  Frederick  the  fatal 
package. 

Nobody  knew  of  its  existence  besides  John,  except  the 
lawyer  who  had  drawn  up  the  codicil  ;  but  the  affairs  of 
the  family  would  be  settled  by  the  Surrogate  of  New  York, 
and  no  lawyer  of  Essex  County  would  be  called  upon  to 
give  his  testimony  in  the  matter.  It  was,  however,  an  ugly 
circumstance  which  prompted  Mr.  Frederick  not  to  destroy 
the  package,  as  he  first  intended,  but  to  open  it,  examine 
it,  ponder  over  it,  and  see  what  it  was  best  to  do.  We  will 
become  acquainted,  later  on,  with  whatever  the  wisdom  and 
the  honesty  of  the  young  gentleman  shall  prompt  him  to 


A   CATASTBOPEE.  205 

invent  and  execute  for  the  glory  of  the  Kirkbride  house 
now  intrusted  to  his  care. 

Five  days  exactly  after  the  apoplectic  fit,  the  most  honor- 
able but  too  worldly-wise  merchant  breathed  his  last,  and 
the  body  was  transferred  to  New  York,  where  it  was  to  be 
honored  with  splendid  and  mournful  obsequies. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

A  NEW  DEAL  OF  CAEDS  ALL  AEOUND. 

At  the  inn  in  the  Adirondacks,  after  a  full  day  given  to 
the  overwhelming  grief  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  preparations  were 
made  for  departure.  A  temporary  coffin,  the  best  that 
could  be  found  in  the  village  near  by,  was  procured ;  the 
things  belonging  to  the  deceased  were  packed  up,  and  two 
roomy  double  carriages  were  hired  for  the  voyage  as  far  as 
Ticonderoga.  In  the  first  of  these,  the  coffin  was  laid  on  the 
front  seat,  and  John  occupied  alone  the  back  seat.  The 
lady  wished,  indeed,  to  occupy  it,  but  was  very  properly 
prevented  by  her  son.  She  sat,  therefore,  in  the  second 
carriage  with  Frederick. 

She  tried  first  to  engage  in  conversation  with  him,  as  she 
thought  the  solemn  occasion  might  have  already  made  an 
impression  on  the  young  man.  But  although  he  never 
made  an  unpleasant  remark,  and  never  appeared  to  be 
wearied  by  her  words,  she  soon  perceived  that  whatever 
she  might  say  would  be  perfectly  useless,  or  rather  w^orse 
than  silence.  She  consequently  left  off  talking  to  him,  and 
during  the  whole  trip  no  other  attempt  was  made  on  her 
part,  and,  if  they  ever  talked,  it  was  only  on  account  of 
some  trifling  incident  on  the  way. 

,  Left  to  her  own  thoughts,  poor  Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  soon 
plunged  in  the  most  melancholy  reflections.  The  first 
that  presented  themselves  had  merely  for  their  object 
the  heavy  stroke  that  had  just  fallen  on  her.  What  a 
deep  grief  she  felt  for  the  death — alas !  so  sudden — of  her 

20G 


A  liEW  DEAL  OF  CABDS  ALL  ABOUND.  207 

dear  husband !  They  had  been  married  nearly  thirty  years, 
and  during  that  long  period  of  time  there  had  never  been 
any  serious  disturbance  between  them.  She  knew  that  he 
loved  her  dearly  ;  and  if  he  did,  it  was  certainly  because  he 
was  fully  aware  that  she  was  entirely  attached  to  him.  He 
had  never  refused  her  anything  for  which  she  had  ex- 
pressed the  slightest  wish.  It  is  true  that,  for  herself, 
she  limited  her  requests  to  the  most  simple  requirements, 
and  it  was  not  from  her  that  he  could  fear  to  be  ruined 
by  the  love  of  finery.  But  her  charities  went  far  beyond 
those  of  the  most  wealthy  and  benevolent  women  of  the 
city.  K'othing,  almost,  has  been  said  of  it  in  these  pages, 
because  we  have  nearly  limited  our  narrative  to  what  ap- 
peared to  the  eyes  of  all,  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride  shrunk  from 
anything  that  would  look  like  ostentation,  chiefly  in  alms- 
giving. But  the  fact  was  that  there  was  scarcely  any  char- 
itable institution  connected  with  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
New  York  to  which  she  was  not  a  most  liberal  contributor  ; 
and  she  did  not  confine  her  benevolence  to  her  own  denomi- 
nation, as  the  reader  by  this  time  is  fully  aware.  Her  hus- 
band never — absolutely  never — found  fault  with  her  on  this 
account ;  and  whenever  she  applied  to  him  for  such  pur- 
poses as  these,  not  only  he  did  not  refuse,  but  he  always 
consented  with  the  best  possible  grace,  and  had  always 
something  pleasant  to  say  to  her.  This  came  back  to  her 
mind  at  this  moment,  and  floods  of  tears,  full  of  tenderness 
toward  him,  ran  from  her  eyes  at  the  mere  remembrance. 
She  knew  well  that  this  would  most  probably  not  have  been 
the  case,  at  least  to  the  same  extent,  had  she  been  united 
in  marriage  to  any  other  rich  merchant  in  New  York. 

This  brought  her  to  think  of  all  the  other  excellent  quali- 
ties of  her  late  husband  ;  his  consideration  and  respect  for 
her  ;  his  attention  to  his  family  ;  his  regular  hours  and  faith- 
fulness to  duty  ;  his  reputation  abroad  for  true  honor  and 
highmindedness,  which  was  certainly  reflected  on  her,  and 
accompanied  her  wherever  she  went.  She  had  always  loved 
him  on  account  of  these  great  traits  of  his  character ;  at  this 
moment  she  loved  him  tenfold  more,  because  she  had  lost 


208  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

him  !     Oh  !  how  she  wept  during  that  slow  ride  between  the 
Adirondacks  and  Ticonderoga ! 

During  her  whole  life,  never  before  had  she  met  with  a 
great  misfortune.  In  fact,  with  the  exception  of  her  deep 
anxiety,  during  the  last  year  or  two,  with  regard  to  her  son, 
she  had  scarcely  been  touched  by  an  adverse  fate.  She  had 
lost,  it  is  true,  four  beautiful  children,  and  as  a  tender 
mother  she  had  keenly  felt  her  separation  from  them  ;  but 
she  was  a  Christian  mother,  and  as  they  all  died  very  young, 
and  they  had  been  baptized  with  the  true  rites  of  Chris- 
tian baptism,  she  knew  they  were  happy  in  heaven.  In  the 
present  case,  she  did  not  dare  to  look  too  distinctly  on  aU 
the  circumstances  of  that  dreadful  blow  inflicted  by  grim 
death.  Would  the  virtues  of  her  husband  open  for  him 
the  gates  of  heaven  ?  The  strict  injunctions  of  the  decalogue 
are  not  concerned  only  with  the  duties  of  a  father,  of  a  hus- 
band, of  a  citizen,  of  a  man,  in  fine,  in  all  his  relations  to- 
ward his  fellow  creatures.  The  three  first  and  most  solemn 
precepts  of  the  law  of  God  regard  the  duties  of  the  creature 
toward  his  Creator ;  and  the  poor  lady  could  not  think  of 
it  without  shuddering.  She  knew  that  her  husband,  what- 
ever might  have  been  the  cause,  had  totally  neglected  during 
his  life  these  most  important  commandments,  and  had  not 
had  time  to  repent  at  his  death.  What  a  torture  for  the 
loving  heart  of  this  pious  lady !  She  tried  to  ward  off  the 
thought  of  it ;  she  tried  in  vain.  She  remembered  the  infi- 
nite mercy  of  God,  and  many  words  of  Holy  Scripture  came 
to  her  memory  to  assuage  her  grief  ;  but  the  question  always 
came  back  to  her  mind,  to  renew  her  fears.  Can  a  sin  be 
washed  away  which  has  not  been  repented  and  atoned  for  ? 
What  a  load  of  misery  oppressed  her  at  these  reflections, 
which  she  had  at  last  to  discard,  because  there  was  no  sat- 
isfactory answer  to  that  fearful  question  ! 

It  would  be  impossible  to  relate  in  detail  all  that  passed 
through  her  racked  brain,  during  that  ride  as  far  as  Lake 
Champlain,  then  on  the  boat  to  Whitehall,  and  finally  on 
the  cars  to  New  York.  The  mournful  train  finally  arrived, 
on  the  evening  of  the  second  day,  at  the  mansion  on  Madi- 


A  NEW  DEAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  AROUND.  209 

son  Avenue,  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride  retired  directly  to  her 
room,  where  everything  contributed  rather  to  increase  than 
to  moderate  her  grief. 

It  must  be  said  that  Frederick  acted  most  properly  from 
that  moment.  He  understood  that  he  must  appear  as  the 
head  of  the  family,  and  took  gracefully,  if  mournfully, 
his  position.  He  began  to  direct  all  the  preparations  for 
the  funeral,  which  was  to  take  place  at  the  beginning 
of  the  following  week.  In  the  absence  of  other  near  rela- 
tives, Mr.  T.  Bland  came  to  help  the  young  master  of  the 
house ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  the  inevitable  Mr. 
Brown  took  upon  himself,  at  their  request,  the  great  bulk 
of  the  details.  This  gave  more  time  to  Frederick  to  show 
some  attention  to  his  mother.  He  often  went  to  her  room 
and  tried  to  console  her  by  giving  her  a  hope  that  he  would 
turn  out  at  last  a  true  son.  Whenever  intimate  friends 
came  to  see  the  lady  of  the  house  in  her  bereavement,  he 
always  received  them  first,  and  he  never  brought  them  up 
to  her  apartments,  except  after  having  first  learned  from 
her  if  she  wished  it.  Many  other  marks  of  consideration 
showed  that  he  knew  at  least  the  conventionalities  of  life. 

On  the  solemn  day  of  the  obsequies  Trinity  Chapel  was 
filled  with  the  most  respectable  and  rich  merchants  of  New 
York.  But  of  the  relatives  of  the  deceased  few,  indeed,  were 
to  be  seen.  The  time  has  passed  when  in  the  United  States 
families  were  so  numerous  that  at  weddings,  funerals,  re- 
unions of  any  kind,  often  one  hundred  or  more  near  rela- 
tives assembled  before  the  altar  of  a  church,  or  around  a 
flower-loaded  rosewood  coffin,  or  in  the  mansion  at  the  hos- 
pitable board.  When  wedded  couples  had  never  less  than 
six  and  occasionally  could  boast  of  no  less  than  twelve  chil- 
dren, then,  indeed,  the  number  of  cousins  reminded  you  of 
the  old  Celtic  clans.  In  our  days  one  or  two  is  the  common 
average  of  the  offspring  of  the  rich  ;  and  at  this  rate  their 
lineage  is  rather  on  the  road  to  extinction  than  to  any 
remarkable  increase.  We  cannot  be  surprised,  therefore, 
that  on  that  day,  besides  the  disconsolate  lady  and  her 
son,  seated  in  the  first  pew,  the  eye  of  an  observer  could 
14 


210  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

remark  only  a  few  very  distant  relatives,  and  scarcely  a 
couple  of  first  cousins.  But  the  friends  were  extremely  nu- 
merous, as  Mr.  Kirkbride  justly  enjoyed  a  high  reputation 
for  integrity,  honor,  and  skill,  which  success  had  crowned 
during  his  life  by  the  very  ample  fortune  he  left  after 
him.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Dixon  performed  the  ceremonies  with 
his  usual  stately  decorum,  and  read  the  service  with  feel- 
ing and  appropriate  gravity.  When  he  came  to  the  dis- 
course which  has  become,  in  our  days,  an  absolutely  neces- 
sary appendage  of  such  a  mournful  event,  he  spoke  of  the 
deceased  with  a  just  appreciation  of  his  worth,  not  only  as 
a  man  but  as  a  Christian,  addressed  some  affectionate  and 
moving  words  of  religious  consolation  to  the  sorrowful  wife, 
and  did  not  forget  the  necessary  advice  to  the  young  gentle- 
man, who  could  not  do  better  at  the  threshold  of  a  brilliant 
mercantile  career  than  follow  the  exanijple  of  his  respected 
father. 

A  solemn  dirge  concluded  the  service ;  and  all  that  re- 
mained of  Mr.  Ralph  S.  Kirkbride  was  carried  to  Green- 
wood, where  an  imposing  monument  was  to  be  raised  in 
that  immense  necropolis,  to  the  memory  of  an  excellent 
husband,  an  exemplary  father,  and  an  irreproachable  citizen 
and  merchant. 

It  was  a  few  weeks  only  after  the  solemn  funeral  that  the 
ceremony  took  place  of  opening  the  will  and  last  testament 
of  Mr.  Ralph  S.  Kirkbride.  Besides  the  wife  and  son  of 
the  deceased,  there  were  present  his  few  near  relatives,  the 
Surrogate  of  New  York,  who  was  to  admit  the  instrument  to 
probate,  some  friends  of  the  family,  among  whom  appeared 
conspicuously  the  partners  of  the  firm,  and  finally  the  attor- 
ney who  had  brought  the  will  and  was  to  read  it.  The  seal 
at  first  was  offered  for  inspection  to  i\\e  judge  and  after- 
ward broken  ;  the  paper  had  been  written  and  signed  a 
few  months  previously,  and  no  objection  could  be  raised  as 
to  any  of  the  usual  formalities. 

It  gave  first  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  his  dear  and  devoted  wife, 
the  property  in  fee  simple  of  the  house  on  Madison  Avenue 
with  the  lots  on  which  it  had  been  constructed;  the  remainder 


A  NEW  DEAL  OF  CABDS  ALL  AROUND.  211 

of  the  block  was  evidently  not  comprised  in  this  item. 
The  same  lady  was  declared  to  be  sole  owner  of  the  furni- 
ture, valuables,  carriages  and  horses,  and  in  general  of 
everything  the  house  and  outbuildings  contained  except  the 
library.  Finally  an  annuity  was  to  be  paid  her  out  of  the 
first  income  of  the  remaining  estate,  amounting  to  twenty 
thousand  dollars  a  year. 

Legacies  were  then  given  to  many  persons,  including 
nearly  all  the  relatives,  even  distant,  of  the  gentleman. 
Kone  of  the  servants  were  forgotten,  and  John,  among 
others,  received  five  hundred  dollars,  besides  a  part  of  his 
master's  wardrobe. 

The  shanty  and  its  occupants  were  not  mentioned  in  the 
will ;  Mr.  Kirkbride  evidently  left  them  to  the  kind  protec- 
tion of  his  wife,  who  would  certainly  not  forget  them.  Mr. 
Cornelius  0' Byrne,  however,  had  not  been  left  out,  and  a 
gold  watch  and  chain  was  given  him,  with  a  number  of 
books  intended  to  forward  his  education  in  the  particular 
career  opened  out  to  him.  The  works  assigned  to  him  were 
all  the  most  valuable  that  had  been  written  on  the  United 
States,  its  government,  productions,  commerce,  etc.,  on  the 
State  of  New  York,  with  most  reliable  statistics  on  every 
question,  finally,  on  the  great  city  of  New  York,  its  estab- 
lishments, courts  of  law,  internal  regulations  and  police, 
educational  and  medical  schools,  etc.  Mr.  Kirkbride  had 
also  particularly  remembered  that  our  friend  Con  was  an 
Irishman  ;  and  a  good  number  of  reliable  works  on  Ireland, 
her  history,  past  glories,  and  actual  state,  on  Wexford 
County  particularly,  going  into  many  topographical  details, 
were  given  to  the  young  man  as  a  special  mark  of  the 
''esteem"  of  the  deceased  merchant,  "for  his  integrity, 
courage,  and  devotedness  to  duty." 

At  last,  the  remainder  of  the  real  estate,  of  the  personal 
property,  of  the  stocks  and  bonds,  belonging  to  Mr.  Kalph 
S.  Kirkbride,  was  given  over  to  his  son,  Frederick,  now  of 
age,  and  already  a  partner  in  the  general  firm  ;  the  whole 
of  it,  however,  reversible  to  the  mother,  in  case  of  the  son 
dying  before  her  without  issue. 


212  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

The  executors  of  the  Tvdll  were  declared  to  be  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride,  and  Mr.  T.  Bland,  already  known  to  us. 

The  Surrogate  of  New  York  received  the  instrument,  and 
promised  that  in  a  short  time  he  would  have  decided  on  its 
contents.  In  fact,  there  was  not  the  least  probability  of 
any  objection  being  raised  against  it ;  and  from  this  day, 
Mr.  Frederick  Kirkbride  was  considered  as  the  head  of  the 
house,  and  the  o^vner  of  property  amounting  to  more  than 
a  million  dollars,  in  real  estate,  stocks  and  bonds,  besides 
the  first  interest  in  the  great  commercial  house.  Was  it  not 
enough  to  turn  the  head  of  a  young  man  already  crazy  ? 

Until  that  day  he  had  lived  with  his  mother  ;  but  soon 
after  he  begged  of  her  to  give  him  an  interview  after  din- 
ner ;  and  being  taken  by  her  directly  to  her  room,  he  sat 
down,  at  a  respectful  distance  from  her  arm-chair,  and  the 
following  conversation  took  place. 

*'I  am  very  sorry,  my  dear  mother,  that  I  must  hence- 
forward cease  living  with  you  ;  but  you  must  see  yourself 
that  it  is  not  left  to  my  will,  and  it  becomes  the  conse- 
quence of  our  altered  circumstances." 

''What  do  you  mean,  Fred?"  replied  the  lady;  "the 
only  altered  circumstance  that  I  see  is  our  common  misfor- 
tune in  having  lost,  you  a  father,  and  I  a  dear  husband  ;  and 
this,  instead  of  separating  us,  ought  to  knit  us  closer  to  each 
other.     How  could  I  live  alone  in  this  big  house? " 

"  Do  you  not  see,  mother,"  interposed  the  young  gentle- 
man, ' '  that  I  am  master  of  nothing  in  it,  except  the  books, 
which  I  willingly  leave  you  ;  and  that  I  must  have  my  own 
establishment?  This  was  evidently  my  excellent  father's 
object  in  disposing  of  this  house  as  he  did.  Do  not  be- 
lieve, dear  mother,  that  I  repine  at  it,  and  feel  aggrieved 
that  it  was  not  left  to  me  ;  if  it  had  been,  I  should  most 
willingly  have  given  it  to  you.  But  evidently  my  father, 
by  this  arrangement,  intended  to  suggest  that  I  should  be- 
gin an  establishment  somewhere  else.  Why,  I  have  not 
even  a  horse  to  ride  at  my  own  pleasure !  " 

"What  is  it  that  you  say,  my  son?"  exclaimed  the 
astonished  mother,  "don't  you  see  that  everything  I  have 


A  NEW  DEAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  AROUND.  213 

is  yours,  and  you  can  use  the  horses,  carriages,  and  every- 
thing else  as  you  like,  much  more  freely,  indeed,  than  dur- 
ing your  lather's  lifetime  V 

"No,  mother,"  said  the  son,  "I should  be  afraid  of  in- 
conveniencing you,  and  you  must  feel  yourself  that  I  could 
not  act  freely  in  taking  such  liberties  every  day  with  things 
altogether  out  of  my  possession.  This  place,  besides,  is 
too  far  from  the  centre  of  our  business  ;  I  must  live  farther 
down  town,  in  order  to  be  more  ready  to  answer  every  call 
for  me  in  Beaver  Street." 

"These  are  not  your  true  reasons,"  exclaimed  the  poor 
lady  ;  ' '  your  father  could  very  well  attend  to  his  business 
from  this  house,  which  he  himseK  built ;  and  you,  a  young 
man,  can  very  well  do  as  he  did,  without  neglecting  what 
he  never  neglected." 

"I  assure  you,  dear  mother,"  interposed  Mr.  Frederick, 
with  a  great  deal  of  feeling  and  earnestness,  "that  these 
are  my  '  true  reasons,'  and  I  would  not  for  the  world  give 
you  any  false  ones.  Thus  my  mind  is  made  up,  and  I  have 
already  engaged  apartments  in  the  Great  Central  Hotel, 
until  I  can  make  other  arrangements." 

Thus  ended  the  conversation,  which  was  equivalent  to 
the  stroke  of  a  dagger  for  the  heart  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  She 
understood  perfectly  how^  her  son  would  be  more  "  free"  in 
that  new  place,  and  how  also  he  would  find  himself  nearer 
to  his  "business"  there.  From  that  day  forth  Frederick 
had  given  orders  to  prepare  a  suite  of  splendid  rooms  in  the 
G.  C.  H.,  and  it  is  in  that  gorgeous  palace  that  we  shall 
henceforth  meet  him  most  of  the  time.  "Honest"  John 
was  to  go  with  him  as  his  "confidential  agent,"  and  he 
engaged  for  his  new  footman  a  pompous  young  fiunky, 
likewise  from  cockneydom. 

Whilst  mother  and  son  are  thus  placed  in  "  altered  cir- 
cumstances," we  must  turn  our  eyes  toward  the  O' Byrnes, 
who  have  been  too  long  forgotten.  Our  friend  Con  also  be- 
gins, from  this  day  forth,  to  take  the  lead  in  the  family, 
and  our  first  business  is  with  him.     James  Ahern,  scarcely 


214  LOUISA  KIBKBBIDE. 

returned  from  the  north,  had  gone  to  acquaint  him  with  the 
last  news,  and  had  given  him  positive  information  of  the 
circumstances  related  above.  Con  0' Byrne  was  satisfied 
that  he  had  served  a  good  purpose  in  keeping  watch,  during 
a  full  month,  on  John  ;  it  was  only  a  pity  that  he  was  ab- 
sent when  Mr.  Kirkbride  fell  into  a  fit.  He  had  no  doubt 
that  the  valet,  either  at  that  moment,  or  later,  in  the  inn, 
had  taken  possession  of  property  belonging  to  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride, or  of  some  important  papers.  But  it  could  not  be 
helped.  Even  had  Ahern  been  present  at  the  time  of  the 
apoplectic  attack,  John  might  have  carried  out  his  purpose 
afterward,  during  the  full  day  he  remained  A\dth  his  uncon- 
scious master.  Con,  however,  kept  in  his  mind  all  the  par- 
ticulars of  the  case,  and  thought  that  something  might  turn 
up  later  on.     He  had  heard,  even,  of  a  lawyer's  visit. 

The  whole  O' Byrne  family  was  struck  dumb  by  the  sud- 
den demise  of  their  benefactor ;  and  together  with  the  hope 
that  his  wife  would  be  able  to  continue  her  protection,  came 
instinctively  the  dread  of  the  young  heir  coming  into  pos- 
session and  driving  them  out.  When  Mr.  Kirkbride' s  will 
became  known,  this  persuasion  remained  settled  among 
them,  and  they  expected,  at  every  moment,  to  receive  a 
summons  to  that  effect.  A  visit,  however,  that  the  young 
man  and  his  sister  paid  to  the  lady  directly  after,  at  first 
quieted  their  alarm. 

Con  and  Julia  went  together  to  the  mansion,  and  the  lady 
received  them  in  her  room.  The  young  man  expressed  his 
gratitude  for  the  kind  remembrance  of  Mr.  Kirkbride  in  his 
will,  and  he  said,  ' '  that  this  would  be  a  new  motive  for 
him  to  increase  in  devotedness.  Their  hopes,  however, 
were  centred  in  her  ;  and  they  were  not  blind  to  the  fact, 
that  her  son  was  not  their  friend.  If  they  must  leave  the 
place  where  they  had  been  so  hospitably  received,  it  would 
be  proper  to  let  them  know  right  away,  as  they  would  have 
more  time  before  winter  to  establish  their  quarters  in  -  some 
other  locality." 

'"  What  do  you  mean,  young  man  '\  "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride.    ' '  I  know  that  your  cottage  is  now  the  property  of 


A  JSTEW  DEAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  AROUND.  215 

my  son  ;  but  I  am,  I  hope,  as  much  mistress  there,  as  he  is 
himself  master  in  this  house,  which  is  my  property.  I  am, 
at  least,  as  much  mistress  as  during  the  life  of  my  husband, 
and  it  will  certainly  be  sufficient  for  me  to  tell  my  son  that 
I  want  you  and  cannot  do  without  you,  for  him  not  to  think 
of  sending  you  away.  Dismiss  from  your  mind  anything 
of  that  kind,  my  dear  friend,  for,  from  the  expressions  of 
my  husband  in  his  will,  I  can  give  you  that  title.  Go  home 
now,  and  calm  the  fears  of  your  respectable  parents,  but 
leave  Julia  with  me,  as  I  wish  to  speak  to  her  in  private." 

Con  withdrew,  and  from  that  moment  the  O' Byrnes 
thought  they  would  remain  undisturbed  in  their  cottage, 
and  did  not  think  of  looking  elsewhere  and  making  pre- 
paration for  a  change.  Thus  the  fine  weather  of  the  Fall 
was  passing  away  ;  for  the  month  of  October  had  already 
arrived,  and  was  fast  gliding  away,  when  this  took  place. 
Frederick,  the  reader  must  know,  had  not  yet  left  his  mo- 
ther's house,  as  his  apartments  in  the  hotel  were  not  quite 
ready. 

''Dear  child,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Kirkbrideto  Julia,  as  soon 
as  Con  had  left;  "I  should  indeed  have  supported  much 
better  my  bereavement,  had  you  been  with  me  in  that 
dreary  north,  where  I  had  no  one  on  whose  true  sympathy 
I  could  surely  rely.  A  thought  has  occupied  my  mind  for 
some  time,  and  I  must  communicate  it  to  you.  I  would 
feel  much  more  happy  here  if  I  had  you  altogether  with 
me.  Could  you  not  come  and  occupy  some  of  these  empty 
apartments  ?  Be  sure  I  would  not  consider  you  as  a  servant, 
but  as  a  friend ;  you  would  have  a  title  as  little  menial  as 
possible,  and  a  room  near  mine.  What  do  you  say  to  this. 
Miss  Julia  O' Byrne?"  The  lady  pronounced  these  last 
words  with  an  arch  smile  much  more  expressive  than  the 
words  themselves. 

"Be  sure,  madam,"  answered  Julia,  "that  I  would  with 
great  pleasure  come  to  live  with  you,  even  as  a  servant, 
could  I  leave  my  mother  alone  ;  but  I  put  it  to  you,  as  you 
have  so  true  an  idea  of  Christian  duty,  could  you  advise  me 
to  do  it  on  any  consideration  ? " 


216  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

*'I  see  wifcli  regret,"  replied  the  lady,  '^liat  you  are 
right ;  but  I  insist  upon  this,  that  every  day,  in  the  evening, 
when  you  have  done  for  your  mother  what  you  are  bound 
in  duty  to  do,  you  will  come  to  spend  the  night  mth  me. 
I  have  a  good  reason,  on  account  of  my  widowhood,  not  to 
receive  any  company  this  winter  :  my  son  will  have  enough 
to  do  outside,  not  to  trouble  me  inside  of  the  house ;  I 
want  you  for  the  long  evenings  and  nights  of  that  season. 
I  think  I  can  '  advise '  you  to  consent  as  a  thing  altogether 
consistent  with  your  duty  to  your  parent." 

"  I  feel  honored,  madam,  by  your  proposal,"  said  Julia ; 
*'and  I  do  not  see  much  difficulty  in  the  way,  provided  I 
am  allowed  to  leave  your  house  in  the  morning  as  early  as 
I  think  proper.  I  cannot,  however,  give  my  positive  con- 
sent without  first  speaking  to  my  mother." 

Of  course  Mrs.  O' Byrne  willingly  consented,  and  from 
that  day  forth  Julia  occupied  at  night  the  room  nearest  to 
the  lady's  sleeping  apartment.  Often,  after  having  worked 
and  talked  together  until  past  ten  o'clock,  when  Julia  re- 
tired to  say  her  prayers,  Mrs.  Kirkbride  entered  the  little 
room  with  her,  and  knelt  and  prayed  with  a  great  deal  of 
devotion,  and  a  real  heartfelt  pleasure.  The  lady  had, 
first,  tried  to  keep  Julia  in  her  own  room  during  her  own 
prayers,  but,  as  the  girl  steadily  refused,  saying  that  she 
had  particular  devotions,  sometimes  of  the  rosary,  some- 
times of  the  scapular,  to  comply  with,  Mrs.  Kirkbride, 
to  end  the  contest,  had  to  give  way,  led  also,  perhaps,  a 
little  by  natural  curiosity  to  know  what  that  "  rosary"  and 
that  "scapular"  meant.  So  she  was  at  first  surprised  that 
the  girl  had  so  many  paters  and  aves  to  say  ;  but  she  came 
at  last  to  relish  them,  with  the  reflection  that,  at  least,  the 
Lord's  Prayer  becomes  perfectly  well  known,  and  a  Chris- 
tian cannot  say  it  often  enough  ;  as  to  the  Hail  Mary,  which 
at  first  seemed  to  her  a  little  "outlandish,"  as  she  was  not 
used  to  it,  it  appeared  to  her,  finally,  beautiful  in  its  sim- 
l^licity,  full  of  meaning,  and  exuberant  with  spiritual  con- 
lation. 

"If  my  poor  husband,"  she  said,  "had  known  it,  and 


A  NEW  DEAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  ABOUND.  217 

repeated,  before  dying,  the  last  prayer,  '  Holy  Mary,  mo- 
ther of  God,  pray  for  us  sinners  now,  and  at  tlie  hour  of 
our  death.  Amen,'  I  should  now  experience  a  great  con- 
solation in  the  thought  that  he  might  really  have  been 
helped,  at  his  last  moments,  by  the  prayers  of  holy  Mary." 

But  what  most  excited  her  wonder  in  Julia's  night 
prayers  was  what  the  girl  called  the  ''examen  of  con- 
science;" at  that  time  she  remained  perfectly  silent,  and 
after  some  moments  spent  in  reflection,  resumed  her  devo- 
tions. 

''What  occupies  you,"  said  the  lady  one  day,  ''when 
you  do  not  say  anything,  but  remain  there  like  a  statue, 
without  moving  a  muscle  ?  " 

"I  examine  my  conscience,"  replied  the  girl. 

"Could  you  not  examine  it  aloud?"  said  the  lady. 

"Then,  madam,  you  will  know  my  sins." 

"What  of  that  ?"  observed  Mrs.  Kirkbride  ;  "they  can- 
not be  very  grievous,  and  perhaps  I  also  will  some  day  ex- 
amine my  conscience  before  you,  when  I  have  learned  how 
to  do  it ;  then  you  will  7i7iow  my  sins,  but  I  hope  you  will 
not  speak  of  them  to  any  one." 

Julia  laughed  outright,  and  said,  "Well,  madam,  since 
you  msh  it,  I  will  do  it  to-night ; "  and  the  good  lady  was 
a  great  deal  surprised  that  the  girl  entered  into  so  many 
details,  looking  into  her  own  heart  to  know  if  she  had,  during 
the  day,  said  any  unpleasant  word,  entertained  any  unchari- 
table thought,  failed  in  duty  to  her  parents,  been  distracted 
in  her  prayers,  and  reproaching  herself  chiefly  for  not  ex- 
amining her  conscience  strictly  enough  before  going  to  con- 
fession. 

" Indeed  !  "  Mrs.  Kirkbride  said  to  herself ;  "a  Catholic 
must  know  himself  perfectly  well,  when  he  has  done  this 
during  twenty  years.  I  was  always  puzzled  when,  reading 
my  prayers  in  the  books  of  Dr.  Dixon,  I  found  some  direc- 
tions about  the  examen  of  conscience,  and  was  exhorted 
to  find  out  and  bewail  my  sins,  but  nobody  had  ever  taught 
me  how  to  do  it.  Julia  has  given  me  a  good  lesson  which 
I  must  not  forget." 


218  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

The  affection  of  the  good  lady  for  the  girl  increased  daily, 
and  as  she  had  made  no  mention  of  wages  for  the  help  she 
received,  she  took  occasion  from  it  to  load  her  young  friend 
with  presents  of  every  kind,  money,  muslin,  cloth,  what- 
ever you  wish,  except  silk,  which  Julia  never  would  touch, 
saying  that  her  mother  would  not  approve  of  it.  But  this 
happy  state  of  affairs  could  not  continue  forever. 

When  Frederick  Kirkbride  was  finally  settled  in  his 
gorgeous  apartments  in  the  Great  Central  Hotel,  he  began 
seriously  to  discuss  within  himself  what  was  to  be  his  line 
of  conduct.  It  was  an  examen  of  conscience  very  different 
from  the  one  spoken  of  a  moment  ago.  The  young  gentle- 
man was  not  a  fool,  as  our  readers  must  have  known  before 
this  time.  What  he  wanted  was  to  make,  as  surely  as 
human  ability  can,  a  rapid  fortune,  spending  at  the  same 
time  a  good  part  of  it  in  luxurious  living.  If  he  found, 
after  strict  investigation,  that  the  way  adopted  by  his  father 
was  the  best,  he  would  follow  it,  throwing  all  his  activity 
and  keen  faculties  of  mind  in  the  pursuit.  Should  he,  on 
the  contrary,  become  persuaded  that  gambling  in  stocks, 
gold,  etc.,  where  his  inclinations  certainly  led  him,  was 
preferable,  he  would  soon  cease  to  be  a  merchant,  and  be- 
come the  king  of  the  exchange  and  the  talk  of  the  whole 
country.  Hence,  having  yet  made  no  choice,  he  was  very 
careful  at  first  to  fulfill  his  daily  duties  at  the  counting- 
room  in  Beaver  Street,  where,  not  satisfied  with  the  routine 
of  the  business,  and  the  strict  adherence  to  his  position  as 
chief  partner  in  the  firm,  he  looked  closely  and  attentively 
into  the  previous  operations  of  his  father,  which  he  could 
perfectly  well  understand  from  the  account  books  left  in 
his  possession.  The  result  of  a  couple  of  weeks  of  scrutiny 
was  this:  His  father  had  made  the  greatest  part  of  his 
fortune  by  speculating  in  real  estate,  which  was  quite  inde- 
pendent of  his  income  as  a  merchant.  In  this  last  capacity, 
the  net  revenue  he  derived  for  his  share  from  his  commer- 
cial enterprises,  although  the  capital  of  the  firm  was  large, 
scarcely  amounted,  in  less  prosperous  years,  to  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars  ;  in  the  most  profitable  ones,  it  had  gone  some- 


A  J!fEW  DEAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  AROUND.  gig 

times  as  liigh  as  fifty ;  but  this  very  seldom ;  the  average 
might  be  said  to  be  thirty-five.  This  Frederick  Kirkbride 
considered  as  a  very  unprofitable  expenditure  of  mental 
labor ;  certainly,  he  could  not,  with  his  tastes,  live  on  it. 
Comparing  what  the  cottage  at  Saratoga  had  cost  him,  be- 
sides his  own  personal  expenses  there,  with  what  would  be 
the  amount  of  his  expenses  in  a  long  winter  season  in  New 
York,  he  saw  directly  that  he  could  not  live  a  whole  year  on 
fifteen  thousand,  the  residue  of  the  thirty-five,  as  he  had  to 
give  twenty  to  his  mother.  He  must,  therefore,  speculate  ; 
the  only  question  was,  what  was  the  best ;  the  slipshod 
process  of  pouncing  here  and  there  on  pieces  of  property 
whose  value  would  rise  in  the  course  of  the  next  five 
years,  or  the  rapid  and  actual  profit  on  large  margins  in- 
scribed on  your  memorandum  book  in  the  course  of  a  few 
hours  at  the  stock  exchange?  The  answer  was  ah^eady 
plain  enough  to  Frederick's  understanding.  But  the  fixed- 
ness of  his  determination  was  suddenly  secured  by  a  slight 
incident  which  happened  to  him  at  his  hotel,  toward  the 
end  of  these  investigations.  He  suddenly  learned,  one  even- 
ing, that  his  friend,  Mr.  James  Friskey,  had  just  taken  up 
apartments  like  himself  in  the  same  gorgeous  palace,  and 
that  he  could  be  found  on  the  same  fit)or,  but  in  another 
part  of  the  building.  There  was  no  need  any  more  of  con- 
cealing his  real  feelings  with  respect  to  the  gentleman  ;  he 
could  go  to  him  openly,  without  the  fear  of  an  angry  father 
restraining  him ;  and,  as  he  had  been  obKged  to  appear  on 
several  occasions  averse  to  friendly  communications  with 
this  remarkable  young  gentleman,  his  clear  duty  was  to 
pay  him  the  first  visit,  and  to  go  to  his  rooms,  where  he  was 
just  receiving  his  friends.  The  apartment  was  full ;  Fred- 
erick had  to  push  his  way  through  ;  but  as  soon  as  young 
Friskey  saw  him, 

"Come  along,"  he  said.  ''Most  happy  to  see  you,  at 
last ;  and,  as  I  have  just  learned  that  you  live  here,  I  hope 
we  will  see  each  other  oftener  than  heretofore." 

"As  often  now  as  you  wish,"  responded  our  friend; 
"and,  indeed,  I  am  glad  to  be  so  near  you." 


220  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

It  were  useless  to  relate  at  length  tlie  conversation  which 
followed  ;  quibs,  repartees,  frivolous  honmots^  are  not  much 
in  our  line,  and  the  story  we  relate  is  too  serious  to  be  in- 
terlarded with  jibes  and  witticisms.  But  when  Mr.  Friskey 
saw  that  the  greater  number  of  his  visitors  had  gone,  he  in- 
timated a  desire  of  a  private  conversation  with  Frederick, 
whereupon  the  rest  withdrew. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do,  Freddy?"  said  the  then 
glorious  director  of  Dunkirk.  "I  understand  that  your 
governor  is  dead,  and  you  are  at  the  head  of  his  firm.  So 
you  are  going  to  be  a  merchant  ?  How  many  thousand  do 
you  get  out  of  that  concern  ? " 

*'I  am  not  yet  perfectly  sure,"  answered  Mr.  Frederick, 
'^  but  I  suppose  it  is  not  as  much  as  you  get  from  your  opera- 
tions?" 

"I  suppose  not,"  replied  Mr.  Friskey;  '*but,  seriously, 
do  you  not  see,  Freddy,  that  with  your  capital  you  could 
cut  a  more  glorious  figure  than  I  will  ever  be  able  to  do  ?  I 
began,  you  know,  with  nothing." 

''I  know  it,"  said  Freddy,  "but  all  have  not  your  skill 
and  keen  scent  for  turns  ;  with  my  greenness,  I  might  lose 
everything  I  have  in  a  couple  of  weeks." 

"You  are  mistaken  there,  dear  friend,"  said  the  great 
speculator,  with  unction,  "you  have  a  remarkable  talent  for 
the  'profession,'  and  be  sure  a  large  capital  in  hand,  such 
as  you  have,  is  the  surest  means  of  succeeding  and  heaping 
up,  in  a  trice,  an  immense  fortune." 

"  Your  capital "  and  "a  large  capital  in  hand  "  had  pen- 
etrated deep  into  the  reasoning  faculties  of  young  Kirk- 
bride  ;  they  were  irretrievably  blinded,  and  Mr.  Friskey 
could  boast  that  he  had  made  that  day  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable conquests  of  his  whole  baneful  career. 

Frederick  Kirkbride'  s  mind  was  now  made  up.  He  did 
not,  however,  wish  to  become  immediately  the  talk  of  the 
whole  city,  by  throwing  up  his  position  as  a  merchant,  and 
obtaining  directly  a  seat  at  the  Gold  Board.  He  appeared 
to  have  made  no  change  in  his  way  of  life,  continued  every 
day  faithful  in  his  ofiice,  was  constantly  a  fresh  subject  of 


A  NEW  DEAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  AROUND.  221 

admiration  to  Mr.  T.  Bland,  and  even  visited  his  mother 
oftener  than  he  had  done  previously.  He  intended  to  enter 
upon  his  new  life  gracefully  and  becomingly,  but  he,  in  fact, 
began  directly  that  new  life,  studied  attentively  the  various 
up  and  down  movements  of  shares,  and  ventured  occasionally 
on  some  fancy  stock  less  known  to  the  generality  of  dealers. 

Meanwhile  he  did  not  intend  to  leave  his  '^confidential 
agent,"  John,  in  complete  inactivity.  It  was  time,  he 
thought,  to  test  the  real  ability  of  this  new  gentleman. 
Calling  him  to  his  room,  the  evening  of  the  last  day  of  Oc- 
tober, he  said  to  him  :  "I  have  so  far  scarcely  wanted  you, 
John  ;  the  fact  is,  my  plans  were  not  yet  fully  mature,  and 
shall  not  be  for  a  short  time.  Then,  I  think,  I  will  often  need 
your  services.  But,  meanwhile,  there  is  a  job  for  you  which 
you  will  undertake  with  pleasure,  I  am  sure.  You  have 
not  said  a  word  to  me  lately  of  your  '  friends, '  the  Irish  of 
the  shanty  back  of  mother's  house  ;  I  thought  you  would 
push  me  to  manifest  something  of  my  tender-heartedness 
for  them.  Do  you  not  know  that  I  can  dislodge  them,  if  I 
wish  it,  to-morrow  !  " 

''I  knew  it,  sir,"  said  the  new  '^ confidential  agent;" 
*'but  I  did  not  like  to  'push'  you  to  it,  as  you  say,  on  ac- 
count of  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  I  was  afraid  you  would  not  like 
it  yourself." 

''As  to  that,"  replied  the  fair-minded  young  gentleman, 
"you  were  right  in  thinking  that  I  would  not  unnecessarily 
cause  pain  to  my  dear  mother  ;  but  she  is  surely  amenable 
to  reason  and  sense,  and  I  have  many  things  to  say  to  her 
on  my  side.  Give,  to-morrow,  to  that  brood,  a  fair  summons 
to  decamp  in  five  days  ;  it  is  more  than  they  deserve." 

"  You  make  me  happy,  sir,  by  saddling  this  first  job  upon 
me,"  observed  the  worthy  John. 

"You  understand,  John,"  said  Mr.  Kirkbride,  in  conclu- 
sion, ' '  that  the  thing  is  to  be  done  cleverly,  and  with  due 
decorum  ;  I  shall  want  the  premises  in  five  days  from  to- 
morrow morning  ;  this  is  all  you  have  to  say." 

Mr.  John  understood  perfectly  well  the  meaning  of  his 
employer,  and  prepared  to  do  "  the  job  "  with  "  cleverness" 


222  LOUISA  kirkbhide. 

and  ^'decorum."  The  following  morning,  therefore,  dress- 
ing himself  with  punctiliousness,  and  even  spruceness,  he 
took  the  Madison  Avenue  line  of  stages,  and  was  soon  in 
front  of  the  residence  where  he  had  so  long  acted  as  foot- 
man. He  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of  showing  his 
fine  clothes  to  his  old  associates,  stopped  a  moment  at  the 
house,  and  called  on  the  old  butler  who  had  replaced  ''Bul- 
ly" George,  and  had  been  kept  by  Mrs.  Kirkbride  when, 
after  the  death  of  her  husband,  she  made  new  arrangements 
in  her  house,  dismissing  some  now  useless  servants  and 
introducing  only  a  new  Irish  chambermaid  in  the  place  of 
Miss  Yictorina.  The  new  butler  was  surprised  to  see  his 
old  acquaintance  dressed  in  neat  citizen's  clothes,  without 
any  mark  of  livery. 

"Have  you  left,"  said  he,  "the  service  of  young  Mr. 
Kirkbride?" 

"His  service,  yes,"  answered  John,  "not  his  employ;  I 
am  now  his  "confidential  agent." 

"Glad  to  hear,"  exclaimed  the  butler.  "Do  you  come 
on  business? " 

"Yes,  responded  John.  "I  come  to  free  you  from  the 
sight  of  those  Irish  boors  in  the  shanty  ;  in  five  days'  time 
they  shall  not  trouble  you  any  more,  as  I  bring  them  fair 
and  precise  summons." 

The  remainder  of  the  conversation  need  not  be  detailed, 
but  at  the  end  of  it  John  walked  with  great  dignity  across 
the  inside  of  the  grounds,  and  was  soon  at  the  door  of  the 
cottage.  Knocking  with  great  gravity  and  assurance,  he  was 
admitted  inside,  and  found  only  old  Mrs.  O' Byrne,  who  in- 
vited him  to  sit  down  and  say  what  he  had  to  say.  Mr. 
John  declined  to  sit  down,  but  remaining  on  his  feet  he 
stated  with  great  dignity  and  emphasis  "that  in  five  days 
precisely  Mr.  Frederick  Kirkbride,  owner  of  the  premises, 
would  want  them,  and  hoped  that  by  that  time  the  family 
would  have  removed  to  other  quarters."  And,  without 
w^aiting  for  a  rei^ly,  he  suddenly  withdrew  and  left  the  old 
lady  to  her  reflections. 

Meanwhile  the  news  of  the  errand  on  which  Master  John 


A  NEW  DEAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  ABOUND,  223 

had  come,  spread  rapidly  througli  the  Kirkbride  mansion, 
and  Bridget  soon  carried  it  to  the  lady  herself,  who  could 
not  believe  it  at  all,  but  declared  that  the  insolent  ex-foot- 
man had  merely  done  it  to  scare  the  0' Byrnes,  and  intended 
it  as  a  nice  joke  worthy  of  his  coarseness  and  bitter  nature. 
She,  however,  left  her  room  directly  and  ran  to  the  cottage, 
where  she  found  poor  Mrs.  0' Byrne  all  bewildered  and 
ready  to  cry.     John  had  already  left. 

''Do  not  believe  a  word  of  it,  my  dear  Mrs.  O' Byrne," 
said  the  lady  ;  "  my  son  will  certainly  make  that  impudent 
varlet  pay  dear  for  his  trick."  And  after  some  more  ob- 
servations of  the  kind,  to  the  effect  that  Freddy  would  un- 
doubtedly have  spoken  of  it  to  her  first,  etc.,  etc.,  she  left 
the  shanty,  where  the  old  woman  felt  more  comfortable  after 
the  assurances  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

The  evening  soon  came  ;  Mr.  0' Byrne,  hearing  from  his 
wife  what  had  happened,  believed  firmly  that  there  was  no 
hoax  in  the  affair  ;  and.  Con  having  precisely  come  with  Mr. 
Doyle  to  spend  an  hour  or  so  with  the  family  in  the  even- 
ing, they  all  agreed  that  such  was  really  the  determination  of 
the  young  master,  and  the  best  they  had  to  do  was  to  look 
immediately  for  other  quarters.  Con  was  not  rich,  although 
he  was  beginning  to  earn  some  money  ;  old  Mr.  0' Byrne 
had  regularly  spent  for  the  support  of  the  family  the  wages 
he  received  for  his  labor  in  the  Park.  Yet  their  condition 
was  not  so  forlorn  as  when  they  first  came  to  the  shanty. 
Could  they  immediately  find  a  suitable  residence  in  the 
neighborhood,  there  might  not  be  great  harm  in  the  whole 
business  ;  but  if  they  did  not  find  a  place  exactly  in  three 
days  to  remove  to  it  on  the  fourth,  which  was  to  be  the  fifth 
from  the  summons.  Con  was  positive  that  they  might  suffer 
again  from  the  weather,  at  the  very  moment  that  Mrs. 
0' Byrne's  cough  was  coming  back,  as  is  generally  the  case 
in  apparently-cured  incipient  consumption. 

Meanwhile,  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  dispatched  a  note  to  her 
son,  who  expected  it,  and  came  in  the  evening  with  a  calm 
and  smiling  countenance. 

"1  hope,  my  dear  son,"  said  the  lady,  "that  you  will 


224  '  LOUISA  KIBKBBIDE. 

properly  reprimand  your  man,  Jolin,  for  the  trick  he  played 
this  morning  on  poor  Mrs.  0' Byrne,  by  requesting  the  fami- 
ly, in  your  name,  to  vacate  their  cottage  within  five  days. 
He  had  fairly  scared  the  old  lady,  and  I  had  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  to  quiet  her." 

''It  was  not  a  trick,  mother,"  replied  the  young  gentle- 
man ;  "he  merely  carried  a  message  from  me." 

"So  you  want  them  to  leave  wdthin  five  days  ?  But  do 
you  know,  my  son,  that  I  want  them  to  stay  longer  V 

"I  am  sorry,  mother,"  the  son  said,  quietly;  "but  I 
have  promised  a  friend  who  w^ishes  to  look  at  the  ground, 
with  a  view  to  purchase  it,  that  next  w^eek  there  will  remain 
no  nuisance  on  it,  and  consequently  the  0' Byrnes  have  to 
leave." 

"Do  you  begin  so  early  to  sell  your  father's  real  estate  ? " 
remarked  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  with  a  great  deal  of  surprise. 
"  I  thought  that,  at  least,  before  disposing  of  w^hat  is  so  near 
my  own  house,  you  would  inquire  of  me  if  these  new  neigh- 
bors would  be  agreeable  to  me." 

"I  quite  forgot  this,  mother,"  replied  the  young  gentle- 
man ;  "  but  the  bargain  is  not  yet  concluded,  and  before  it  is, 
I  promise  you  that  you  shall  know  the  name  of  the  pur- 
chaser ;  but  meanwhile  the  O' Byrnes  must  go." 

"Thus  you  deprive  me,  sir,"  observed  the  poor  mother, 
"of  the  help  I  was  receiving  from  Julia,  who  will  certainly 
not  come  to  spend  the  evenings  with  me  after  they  have 
gone." 

"Thus,  madam,  you  attach  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
society  of  a  girl  without  education,"  exclaimed  Frederick; 
"by-and-by,  no  respectable  people  will  come  to  knock  at 
your  door,  and  visit  you." 

"  I  can  select  my  friends  without  your  advice,  sir,"  ejacu- 
lated Mrs.  Kirkbride  with  a  great  deal  of  suppressed  feel- 
ing ;  "and  I  see  that  my  suspicions  were  correct,  and  that 
you  have  no  heart,  even  for  your  mother.  Your  next  step, 
I  suppose,  will  be  to  oblige  me  to  leave  my  house."  And 
saying  this,  the  lady  left  the  dining-room,  where  they  were 
talking,  and  retired  to  her  apartment,  nearly  heart-broken. 


A  NEW  DEAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  AROUND.  225 

Julia  came,  as  usual,  a  short  time  after,  and  it  was  with 
tears  in  her  eyes  that  the  lady  confessed  her  mistake,  and 
told  the  girl  that  really  her  parents  must  go.  She  hoped, 
however,  that  they  could  find  a  better  house  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  she  would  herself  pay  the  rent  for  them,  as 
she  considered  herself  bound  in  duty  to  do,  since  it  was  for 
her  they  had  remained  in  the  shanty  so  late  in  the  season. 
Julia  went  directly  back  to  the  cottage  to  announce  this 
unwelcome  piece  of  news  to  her  parents,  and  she  found 
there  her  brother  and  Mr.  Doyle,  w^ho  had  just  arrived. 
"I  see,"  remarked  the  young  man,  "that  this  English 
bully,  John,  is  intent  on  pursuing  us  as  far  as  his  enmity 
can  go.  I  have  failed  in  my  endeavors,  lately,  to  discover 
his  last  wicked  plot ;  I  hope,  however,  that  with  the  help 
of  God,  I  will  be  more  lucky  another  time,  and  that  I  will 
finally  succeed  in  unearthing  his  deep-laid  schemes,  and 
securing  for  him  his  deserts.  But  meanwhile  we  must  look 
for  other  quarters."  Mr.  Doyle  proposed  first  to  take  back 
the  family  to  James  Street ;  but  Con  would  not  hear  of  it, 
as  Dr.  O'Donnell  had  declared  it  was  a  great  good  fortune 
for  Mrs.  O' Byrne  to  have  moved  up  town,  in  spite  of  the 
real  danger  which  attended  her  first  removal.  Julia,  be- 
sides, could  not  be  of  any  more  use  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  if 
they  went  to  James  Street,  and  the  family  wished  to  show 
their  gratitude  to  the  lady.  It  was,  therefore,  agreed  that 
Con  would  obtain  permission  to  absent  himself  a  couple  of 
days  from  the  police  headquarters  and  look  for  a  convenient 
locality.  They  could  not  expect  to  find  apartments  suited 
to  their  purse  and  rank  in  life  on  the  east  side  of  Fifth 
Avenue  ;  and  so  Cornelius  O' Byrne  wandered  the  first  day 
through  the  wilderness  of  the  west  side  of  Central  Park  in 
search  of  a  house  not  too  far  removed  from  the  Kirkbride 
mansion,  and  yet  decent  enough  for  Christian  people  to 
dwell  in.  His  search  appeared  at  first  to  be  perfectly  fruit- 
less. At  the  time  of  our  story,  this  part  of  Manhattan 
Island,  situated  near  the  finest  pleasure  grounds  of  the 
whole  continent,  presented  the  spectacle  of  the  utmost  con- 
fusion and  wildness.     Clumps  of  green  trees  in  the  midst  of 


226  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

arid  bowlders  of  every  size  ;  thickets  of  underbrush  growing 
without  order  in  marshy  and  swampy  grounds  ;  large  spaces 
covered  only  with  broken  rocks,  scarcely  relieved  by  the 
green  of  a  few  blades  of  grass ;  hills  of  clay  or  sand  and 
gravel,  rising  from  a  dead  level  of  dry  soil ;  here  and  there 
a  shanty  or  an  old  rickety  frame  house,  painted  long  ago, 
but  now  of  an  altogether  indistinct  color  ;  with  goats,  a  few 
pigs,  and  some  badly  kept  cattle  roaming  at  large,  as  un- 
kempt camels  in  the  deserts  of  the  Orient ;  finally,  the  only 
regular  lines  visible  in  the  universal  confusion,  were  the 
roads  called  Eighth,  Mnth,  and  Tenth  Avenues,  scarcely 
deserving  such  high-sounding  names  ;  and  the  faintly  per- 
ceptible lines  of  broad  flags  destined  to  form  the  future 
sidewalks  of  the  cross-streets,  were  the  only  indications 
remaining  on  the  surface  of  the  soil  to  show  that  surveyors 
had  passed  there,  and  had  fixed  the  outlines  of  those  splen- 
did maps  hung  up  in  all  the  real-estate  offices  of  the  city. 

In  this  wilderness  our  young  friend  wandered  the  whole 
day,  and  wherever  he  applied,  he  found  that  either  shanty 
or  house  was  occupied,  or  if  untenanted,  the  premises  were 
totally  unfit  for  the  habitation  of  human  beings.  On  the 
second  day,  the  prospect  at  first  appeared  as  unpromising 
as  the  day  before ;  but  finally,  before  evening,  an  old,  yet 
clean,  small  frame  house  was  discovered  on  Sixty-ninth 
Street,  between  Eighth  and  Ninth  Avenues.  It  was  unoc- 
cupied, and  could  be  made  comfortable ;  the  owner  was 
willing  to  rent  it  for  $400  a  year,  but  the  whole  of  the  fol- 
lowing day  was  required  to  empty  it  of  some  old  furniture, 
and  to  clean  it  of  a  great  deal  of  rubbish,  so  that  the 
O' Byrne  family  could  not  move  into  it  before  the  last  day 
assigned  to  them  by  Frederick  and  his  "  confidential  agent." 

Everybody  is  aware  that  consumption  is  an  insidious  and 
incurable  disease  ;  although  sometimes  its  progress  seems 
to  be  arrested  for  several  years  before  the  last  and  fatal 
symptoms  finally  show  themselves.  In  this  case  the  begin- 
ning of  every  winter  invariably  brings  on  a  recurrence  of 
the  usual  signs  :  coughs,  night-sweats,  feverish  flush,  etc. 
November  had  already  arrived,   and,  even  in  her  former 


A  JN^BW  DUAL  OF  CARDS  ALL  AROUND.  227 

quarters,  Mrs.  0' Byrne  felt  the  inconvenience  of  chilly 
nights  and  foggy  days.  In  her  transfer  to  the  new  resi- 
dence of  the  family,  much  would  depend  on  the  wigather, 
and  when  the  day  came  it  turned  out  to  be  one  of  the  worst 
that  could  be  expected.  The  day  previous  it  rained  occa- 
sionally, and  a  thick  fog  made  the  following  night  ex- 
tremely unpleasant  and  dangerous  to  people  suffering  from 
the  lungs  ;  but  on  the  morning  of  the  last  day  it  fairly 
poured,  and  it  was  clear  that  the  pouring  would  last  at  least 
until  evening.  It  was,  therefore,  nearly  a  repetition  of  the 
former  removal  from  James  Street,  and  in  spite  of  all  possi- 
ble precautions,  carriage,  blankets,  loving  arms,  and  sweet 
attentions,  when  poor  Mrs.  O' Byrne  reached  her  new  dwell- 
ing to  be  put  directly  to  bed,  all  her  former  hacking  cough, 
with  the  dry  heat  of  the  skin,  and  the  intense  headache, 
had  openly  come  to  rack  her  frame  and  jeopardize  her  life. 
But  after  the  first  night,  when  the  following  day  came  with 
a  keen  north  wind,  and  a  piercing  blast,  that  new  house 
which  had  appeared  really  comfortable  at  first,  turned  out 
to  be  almost  the  worst  that  could  be  chosen,  on  account  of 
the  dampness,  closeness,  and  attending  unhealthiness  of 
small  apartments  closed  for  several  months  previously,  and 
scarcely  open  for  a  few  hours  before  occupation  ;  the  fires 
that  had  been  lit  had  not  had  time  to  penetrate  with  their 
gentle  heat  the  old  wainscoting  and  cold  plastering  of  the 
rooms  soaked,  as  it  were,  in  wet  vapor  and  unhealthy  mi- 
asmas. The  following  morning  the  poor  patient  appeared 
to  be  exhausted  and  almost  dying,  and  when  Dr.  Dillon 
arrived  he  pronounced  it  an  attack  of  pneumonia  superin- 
duced on  lungs  already  affected  with  tubercular  disease. 
In  his  opinion  there  was  scarcely  any  hope  to  save  her  life. 
In  spite  of  all  science  could  do  the  symptoms  were  not 
relieved  ;  and  the  clergyman  was  called  in  the  afternoon  of 
the  second  day  to  administer  the  last  rites  of  religion. 
Mrs.  Kirkbride,  hearing  of  it,  directly  ordered  her  carriage, 
and  arrived  just  after  the  man  of  God  had  departed,  and 
left  the  poor  patient  calm  in  her  mind  but  tortured  in  her 
body.     No  need  of  depicting  the  terrible  affliction  of  the 


228  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

lady,  wlio  could  not  lielp  thinking  almost  aloud  that  her 
son  had  killed  the  good  old  woman,  and  that  the  death  of 
so  good  a  person  could  not  but  bring  misfortune  on  the  last 
and  unworthy  scion  of  her  house.  When  she  was  admitted 
for  a  moment  to  the  bedside,  she  seemed  to  ask  her  pardon 
by  the  tears  flowing  from  her  eyes,  and  the  tender  words 
which  a  woman  alone  can  utter,  and  a  woman  alone  can 
appreciate.  Mrs.  0' Byrne  affectionately  offered  her  hand 
and  merely  said  a  word  which  her  complete  prostration 
scarcely  allowed  her  to  finish.  "  I  thank  you,  madam,  sin- 
cerely, for  your  kind  attention,  and  all  you  have  done  for 
us ;  if  God  receives  me  be  sure  I  will  pray  for  you  and 
yours^^^ — with  an  evident  emphasis  on  the  last  word.  The 
doctor  had  recommended  the  most  complete  rest ;  so  the 
lady  withdrew  to  her  house  ;  and  her  son  did  well  not  to 
show  himself  in  her  presence  during  a  whole  week ;  she 
would  have  openly  upbraided  him  as  a  murderer. 

Meanwhile,  Con  and  Julia  remained  in  the  house  where 
they  intended  to  spend  the  night.  They  were  present  with 
their  old  father  when,  shortly  before  daybreak,  Mrs.  0' Byrne 
passed  gently  away,  and  left  in  their  hands  only  a  corpse, 
but  the  corpse  of  a  Fitzgerald  worthy  of  respect  as  de- 
scended from  a  long  line  of  Christian  ancestors.  A  very 
simple  funeral  took  place  on  the  third  day  ;  and  an  obscure 
grave  in  Calvary  Cemetery  received  the  remains  which  there 
await  the  day  of  resurrection. 

Thus  all  the  good  or  bad  actors  figuring  on  the  stage  of 
this  story  have  taken  positions  far  in  advance  of,  and  very 
different  from  those  they  had  at  the  beginning.  It  is  pro- 
perly *^  a  new  deal  of  cards  all  around."" 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

ME.    COENELIUS   o'bYRNE's  FIEST  OPEEATIONS  AS  A 
DETECTIVE. 

In  the  midst  of  his  multifarious  occupations,  Cornelius 
0' Byrne  had  found  time  to  reflect  on  all  the  details  of  the 
history  of  his  family  in  the  New  World.  The  smallest  par- 
ticulars of  the  incidents  which  have  been  so  far  related,  and 
many  besides  which  have  been  left  out,  were  deeply  en- 
graved in  his  memory,  because  his  fond  domestic  affection 
gave  more  interest  in  his  heart  of  hearts  to  whatever  had 
any  reference  to  his  parents  and  to  Julia  than  to  all  other 
facts,  even  those  connected  with  his  new  functions.  He  had 
received  lately  a  formal  appointment  to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the 
famous  corps  of  New  York  detectives.  It  is  said  that  ''new 
brooms  always  sweep  clean;"  but,  besides  the  profound 
truth  of  this  homely  adage,  there  was  in  Con  the  voice  of  a 
conscience  always  urging  him  to  do  his  duty. 

All  the  circumstances  of  the  various  plots  which  have 
been  unfolded  before  the  reader's  eyes  pointed,  in  his  opin- 
ion, to  a  single  designer.  This  designer,  he  knew  from 
Clarke,  was  one  of  the  inmates  of  the  Kirkbride  mansion ; 
and,  after  reviewing  them  all  in  his  mind,  one  after  the 
other,  he  felt  sure  that  John  must  have  been  primarily  the 
man,  even  in  the  late  outrage.  In  the  last  affair,  it  is  true, 
the  eviction  from  the  cottage — the  most  cruel,  in  his  opinion, 
because  it  had  evidently  caused  the  death  of  his  mother — 
there  could  be  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Frederick  Kirkbride  was 
in  conspiracy  with  John.  Was  it  so  in  the  previous  affairs  ? 
He  could  not  say,  and  he  would  scarcely  have  dared  to  be- 
lieve that  it  was  truly  so  in  all  of  them,  at  least. 

229 


230  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

This  being  supposed,  he  could  not  but  reflect  that  if,  as  a 
Christian,  he  was  bound  to  forgive  what  was  done  or  at- 
tempted against  himself,  he  could  in  safe  conscience  unre- 
servedly follow  his  inclination  to  pursue  those  who  had 
persecuted  his  mother  and  his  sister,  and  who  were  evidently 
intent  on  going  on  in  their  wicked  course.  He  was,  more- 
over, convinced  that  they  were  villains,  and  as  his  profes- 
sion made  it  a  duty  for  him  to  look  after  villainy  and  crime, 
to  unearth  them,  in  whatever  spot  they  might  lurk  and  hide 
themselves,  and  to  hand  them  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
human  justice,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  follow  out,  in  all 
the  intricacies  of  their  knavery,  these  two  precious  indi- 
viduals. 

Nevertheless,  as  he  was  extremely  prudent  for  his  age, 
and  after  all  he  felt  a  kind  of  fear  that  he  might  fall  into  a 
mistake  in  this  case,  whatever  might  be  in  appearance  the 
certainty  of  his  inductions,  he  thought  he  would  begin  with 
making  assurance  doubly  sure,  by  obtaining  the  testimony 
of  some  one  who  had  taken  some  part,  however  small,  in 
those  incidents.  There  were  several  of  them,  in  the  house 
and  out  of  it,  and  he  thought  that,  by  offering  them  some 
inducement,  of  such  a  nature  as  to  act  on  the  low  feelings 
of  these  people,  he  would  surely  acquire  the  proof  that  his 
suspicions  were  not  unfounded.  As  soon  as  his  first  footing 
in  his  new  path  was  perfectly  secured,  and  he  had  no  fear 
of  committing  a  fatal  blunder  at  the  start,  he  would  develop 
his  plans,  and  vigorously  counteract  the  nefarious  plots  of 
these  two  associates  in  mischief.  He  was  sure  that,  as  they 
lodged  in  a  public  house,  although  it  was  a  palace,  he  could 
easily  enough  succeed  in  placing  before  the  public  what  had 
been  so  far  concealed  in  the  minds  of  two  pernicious  plot- 
ters. We  must  leave  him  arranging  his  plans  to  the  best 
of  his  ability,  and  turn  our  eyes,  for  a  moment,  in  another 
direction. 

On  the  same  day,  about  this  time,  Mr.  K.  Kirkbride's 
former  attorney  received  two  short  notes,  which  the  course 
of  our  story  requires  us  to  mention.  The  former  was  from 
the  widow,  and  ran  thus : 


(( 


MR.  CORNELIUS  0' BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  231 

"Maj)ison  Avenue,  Nov.  — ,  186-. 

My  dear  Mr.  Wilsox  : — In  my  new  position,  I  shall 
occasionally  require  legal  advice,  and  the  little  property  I 
own  will  want  a  better  supervisor  than  I  can  be.  Would 
you  please  have  the  kindness  to  come  and  see  me  for  this 
purpose  ?  You  will  greatly  oblige, 
''Yours,  respectfully, 

"Louisa  Kirkbride." 

The  other  note  came  from  a  very  different  quarter,  and 
we  copy  it  verbatim^  like  the  first : 

"  Great  Central  Hotel,  Nov.  — ,  186-. 
"Sir; — Please  hand  over  to  Mr.  Dio  Reckoning  the  pa- 
pers my  lamented  father  placed  in  your  hands,  and  an 
abstract  of  the  state  of  his  affairs  at  the  moment  of  his 
death.  I  know  how  satisfied  he  always  expressed  himself 
with  the  services  you  rendered  him  ;  and  you  will  please 
believe  that  for  this  I  am,  as  I  ought  to  be,  personally 
thankful. 

"Respectfully,  youys, 

' '  Frederick  Kirkbride.  ' ' 

Though  Mr.  Wilson  waited  patiently  for  the  coming  of 
Mr.  D.  Reckoning,  he  did  not  postpone  his  visit  to  the 
lady,  but  was  with  her  that  very  evening. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  felt  the  inconvenience  of  occupying  alone 
so  large  a  building,  which  obliged  her  to  keep  a  more  ex- 
pensive establishment  than  she  wished  to  have.  She  pre- 
ferred to  rent  it  and  go  to  live  in  a  smaller  house,  where 
three  or  four  servants  would  sufiice.  She  desired  it  to  be 
near  the  Park,  not  far  from  her  actual  residence  ;  not  in 
Madison  nor  Fifth  Avenue,  but  near  either  of  them,  in 
some  of  the  streets  lately  laid  out.  She  also  gave  the  attor- 
ney directions  to  see  that  her  annuity  should  be  paid  regu- 
larly. 

"  I  am  not  afraid,"  she  said,  "  that  Frederick  will  ever  be 
unfaithful  to  this  obligation  ;  but  with  the  administration 


232  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

of  SO  large  a  fortune,  I  know  that  he  will  find  himself  in  a 
sea  of  business  and  trouble,  and  he  might  not  be  always 
ready  at  the  time  I  shall  want  my  money.  This  would  in- 
convenience me  a  great  deal,  as  I  am  always  nervous  if  I 
cannot  be  punctual  and  prompt  in  all  my  payments." 

"Would  it  be  presumptuous  in  me,  madam,"  said  the 
gentleman,  "to  inquire  how  Mr.  Kirkbride  made  up  his 
mind  to  leave  such  a  complicated  business  and  such  an 
amount  of  property  to  a  very  young  man,  without  any  con- 
trol whatever?" 

"My  husband,"  replied  the  lady,  "had  always  a  great 
idea  of  the  ability  of  his  son,  and  he  thought  he  might  be- 
come a  great  merchant.  Had  he  lived  longer  he  might  have 
modified  his  will ;  but  you  know  the  circumstances  of  his 
demise,  which  have  left  me  forlorn  and  desolate." 

"Are  you  sure,  madam,"  retorted  the  attorney,  "  that  he 
left  no  other  will,  or  at  least  no  codicil  whatever  ? " 

"If  he  had  he  would  have  sent  it  to  you,  I  suppose," 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  said,  innocently  ;  "all  his  other  papers  are 
in  the  hands  of  my  son,  and  I  have  with  me  only  the  letters 
I  received  from  him  during  his  life." 

The  lady  did  not  offer  to  show  the  gentleman  any  of 
them,  particularly  the  last ;  and  the  attorney  thought  it 
would  not  have  been  proper  in  him  to  ask  to  have  a  look 
at  these  letters. 

The  second  note  received  by  the  attorney  will  appear 
natural  enough  to  the  reader,  if  he  reflects  that  young  Kirk- 
bride could  not  but  dislike  a  man  who,  for  all  he  knew, 
must  have  become  acquainted  with  some  at  least  of  the  trou- 
bles he  had  occasioned  to  his  father  during  his  life.  Had 
he  not,  moreover,  in  his  own  possession,  a  parcel  directed 
to  that  gentleman,  which  a  wretched  servant  had  placed  in 
his  hands,  instead  of  sending  it  to  its  address  ?  He  had  not 
yet  dared  to  destroy  it,  as  he  was  sure  to  do  before  long  ; 
but  he  had  slyly  opened  the  package,  and  he  knew  the  con- 
tents of  the  pai)er,  which  left  the  whole  control  of  the  fami- 
ly property  to  his  mother,  until  his  marriage  with  a  person 
approved  of  by  her.    If  he  could  have  blotted  out,  not  alone 


MR.  CORNELIUS  0' BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  233 

the  existence,  but  the  memory  even,  of  that  detested  ' '  at- 
torney," he  would  have  been  free  from  an  intolerable  moral 
burden  which  he  had  to  bear.  He  had,  therefore,  chosen 
a  new  legal  adviser,  and  from  the  respectability  and  real 
integrity  of  the  gentleman  selected  by  his  father,  he  had 
fallen  to  the  intriguing  ability  of  a  third-rate  lawyer,  by 
the  name  of  Dio  Reckoning. 

The  visit  of  the  two  legal  gentlemen  was  short  and  pointed. 
The  accounts  were  all  ready,  and  had  been  so  for  a  week 
before  ;  they  were  made  out  with  punctuality  and  fairness  ; 
and  Mr.  D.  Reckoning  had  to  sign  a  receipt  in  full.  Thus 
all  the  traditional  information  treasured  up  in  the  memory 
of  the  first  attorney  was  lost  to  the  second,  who  did  not 
even  ask  for  it ;  was  lost,  consequently,  to  Frederick  Kirk- 
bride,  who  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  several  state- 
ments mentioned  in  his  father's  accounts.  There  was,  in 
particular,  a  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  paid  by 
Mr.  R.  Kirkbride  the  very  day  he  left  for  Saratoga,  men- 
tioned in  his  account  book  with  merely  the  name  Ernst 
Bauer  written  in  pencil.  What  did  it  mean  ?  Mr.  E.  Bauer's 
office  could  be  found  in  the  directory,  but  how  could  he  be 
approached  and  asked  the  object  of  this  heavy  payment  ? 
Was  the  payment  really  made  to  him  ?  The  check  returned 
from  the  bank  was  in  favor  of  two  names  unknown  to  the 
directory.  These  were  puzzling  questions  ;  and  several 
others  were  raised  by  the  books  of  the  late  merchant  on 
which  his  former  attorney  might  have  thrown  light ;  but 
the  idea  of  going  to  that  source  of  information  was  not  to  be 
thought  of,  and  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  preferred  to  remain  unin- 
formed. 

Every  one  can  see  that  all  was  not  rose-colored  in  the 
splendid  apartments  of  the  Great  Central  Hotel.  But  there 
was,  on  the  other  ide,  a  great  activity  displayed  at  police 
headquarters,  to  which  our  attention  must  be  directed  for 
a  moment.  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  had  begun  to  mature 
his  plans ;  but  he  soon  found  that  they  would  be  neces- 
sarily incomplete,  unless  he  called  to  his  help  not  only  some 
more  skillful  man,  but  chiefly  one  who  should  have  at  his 


234  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

disposal  more  means  than  lie  possessed.  Money  is  the 
sinew,  not  only  of  war,  but  likewise  of  police  administration, 
and  he  had  none  or  very  little  of  it.  He  had,  it  is  true, 
already  engaged  two  able  and  willing  associates :  our  former 
friend  Mr.  James  Ahem,  and  another  young  Irishman  by 
the  name  of  Kyran  Talty.  To  the  first  Mr.  0' Byrne  said: 
"You  are  well  known  to  that  rascally  John,  and  when- 
ever you  meet  him  in  that  big  hotel,  if  he  comes  in  by 
one  door  you  must  immediately  go  out  by  another  ;  and  do 
it  so  quick  that  he  does  not  even  see  you  ;  but  young  Kirk- 
bride  knows  you  as  little  as  any  man  you  meet  in  the  street. 
Try  to  find  out  whom  he  habitually  receives,  how  he  spends 
his  evenings,  and,  if  possible,  what  are  his  projects,  his  in- 
tended victims,  and  his  ready  tools  in  his  infamous  plots. 
This,  at  first  sight,  looks  like  a  detestable  office  ;  but  in  our 
w^orld  it  is  often  the  only  means  of  securing  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  worthy  people ;  and  if  not  undertaken  and 
done,  society  will  be  at  the  mercy  of  rogues  and  of  villains. 
As  to  you,  Talty,  follow  John,  who  does  not  know  you ; 
he  will  take  you  to  places  less  refined  than  the  great  hotel, 
the  opera  house,  and  the  splendid  boudoirs  of  gilded  beau- 
ties ;  you  may  find  him  occasionally  visiting  escaped  con- 
victs, gamblers,  and  rascally  stock-brokers ;  wherever  he 
leads  you,  go,  if  you  can  enter  without  exciting  his  suspi- 
cions ;  but  he  is  keen  as  well  as  unscrupulous.  So  be  prudent, 
and  keep  your  mouth  shut,  your  eyes  and  your  ears  open." 
But  with  all  this,  Cornelius  0' Byrne  felt  that  he  must 
soar  higher  and  communicate  what  he  knew  and  what  he 
wished  to  the  district  attorney,  who  always  continued  to  be 
friendly,  after  having  opened  for  him  this  new  position. 
He  went,  therefore,  to  his  office,  and  related  briefly  what  we 
know  already,  more  in  detail.  The  legal  officer  saw  the  im- 
portance of  some  circumstances  which  0' Byrne  had  not  and 
could  not  follow  out  strictly  enough.  Some  one  must  be 
sent  north.  The  lawyer  who  had  been  called  by  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride  a  few  days  before  his  death,  must  be  applied  to  ;  and 
a  note  from  the  District  Attorney  of  New  York  was  sure  to 
bring  him  out.     The  note  was  carried  by  a  detective. 


MR,  G0IINELIU8  a  BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  235 

The  gentleman  was  courteous  to  the  person  sent  to  him  ; 
but  he  would  not  discover  by  word  of  mouth  what  he  knew  ; 
he  merely  wrote  it  in  a  confidential  letter  to  the  district 
attorney.  This  officer,  therefore,  heard  that,  a  few  days  be- 
fore the  attack  which  had  carried  away  Mr.  Kirkbride,  this 
gentleman  had  expressed  the  intention  of  changing  his 
will,  then  in  the  hands  of  his  attorney  in  New  York  ;  that 
he  had  written  and  executed  a  codicil,  making  radical  alter- 
ations in  that  legal  instrument.  The  lawyer  could  not  say 
why  the  paper  had  not  been  sent  to  New  York ;  the  mail 
left  the  place  only  twice  a  week ;  but  the  gentleman  could 
have  dispatched  an  express -messenger  to  the  nearest  post 
office.  As  he  had  not  done  so,  was  it  a  proof  that  he  had 
again  changed  his  mind  after  drawing  up  the  paper ;  and, 
perhaps,  destroyed  it  ?  The  lawyer  could  not  say.  In  dic- 
tating and  executing  the  codicil,  the  gentleman  appeared  a 
prey  to  violent  contending  emotions,  but  was  perfectly  sane. 
Thus  the  letter  concluded.  The  district  attorney  saw  the 
impossibility  of  fixing  the  crime  legally  on  those  he  really 
suspected.  At  any  rate,  if  the  paper  came  by  improper 
means  into  the  possession  of  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride,  this  young 
man  could  as  easily  destroy  it  as  conceal  it,  and  he  had 
probably  done  so.  The  only  thing  worth  attempting  was  to 
follow  him  closely,  and  discover  if  he  would  not  be  guilty 
of  some  new  villainy,  after  having  committed  a  first  one  of 
that  importance,  in  case  he  had  done  it. 

Thus,  without  knowing  it,  Mr.  Frederick  was  ''the  ob- 
served of  many  observers;"  but,  owing  to  his  happy  ig- 
norance, he  moved  in  his  new  gilded  sphere  with  all  the 
freedom  of  a  young  man  who  could  hold  up  his  head  un- 
blushingly  before  the  whole  world. 

He  had  already,  as  we  saw,  commenced  his  operations  at 
the  exchange,  without,  however,  creating  any  noise  or  at- 
tracting any  attention  ;  so  that  his  partners  in  Beaver  Street 
continued  to  pay  him  their  unfeigned  respects  as  the  head 
of  the  firm.  The  life  of  a  merchant,  nevertheless,  became 
more  and  more  uncongenial  to  his  tastes  ;  and  he  made  up 
his  mind  soon  to  make  a  swoop  upon  the  big  hive  in  Wall 


236  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE, 

Street,  and  to  commence  his  operations  by  a  bold  stroke 
against  his  former  '' friend,"  O'Tee,  against  whom  he  al- 
ways kept  a  grudge.  To  be  more  sure  of  success,  he  needed 
to  know  beforehand  what  cards  O'Tee  was  playing,  and 
there  was  no  better  means  to  do  it  than  by  employing 
''honest''  John,  whom  O'Tee  knew  only  as  a  former  jockey 
and  footman,  and  whom  he  could  not  suspect  of  possessing 
any  ability  for  gambling  in  stocks  ;  nay,  even  for  knowing 
the  game.  He  thought  the  fellow  was  idle,  and  came  to 
the  stock  exchange  to  spend  an  hour  or  two  every  day  as 
many  others  did.  Day  after  day,  therefore,  the  "confiden- 
tial agent"  of  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  was  in  the  building;  not 
too  near  Mr.  O' Tee's  well-known  place,  yet  near  enough  to 
follow  his  operations,  and  have  an  inkling,  at  least,  of  what 
he  was  about.  The  theoretical  lessons  he  received  every 
evening  from  his  employer  were  fast  making  an  adept  of 
him ;  and  everybody  knows,  we  suppose,  that  in  that  pro- 
fession, when  natural  acuteness  and  talent  is  joined  to  base- 
ness and  roguery,  the  progress  is  rapid,  and  the  success 
certain.  John  had  positive  instructions  never  to  bet  him- 
self, except  on  an  insignificant  amount  of  small  shares, 
always  within  his  means,  so  that  his  master  woul'd  never  be 
bound  to  become  his  security.  His  ofiice  was  to  observe 
and  report ;  and  he  so  faithfully  acquitted  himself  of  his 
duty,  that  in  a  little  more  than  eight  days  0' Tee's  strong  and 
weak  points  were  perfectly  well  known  to  Frederick,  who 
finally  made  up  his  mind  to  appear  openly  on  the  gambling 
stage,  and  astonish  the  city  of  New  York  by  his  brilliant 
operations.  He  had  lately  sold  several  parcels  of  valuable 
real  estate,  and  had  at  his  command  a  large  amount  of 
money  which  he  intended  to  use  to  overwhelm  his  victim. 
It  was  the  first  time  that  he  himself  put  in  practice  the  new 
theory,  which  soon  after  was  so  brilliantly  carried  into  ex- 
ecution by  Mr.  James  Friskey,  and  known  as  the  "art  of 
cornering,"  by  which  a  sudden  and  unexpected  monopoly 
is  at  once  created  in  any  given  line  of  shares,  stocks,  gold, 
etc.,  by  which  one  or  more  victims,  nay,  in  the  end,  the 
whole  community  of  capitalists  and  merchants,  are  at  the 


MR.  CORNELIUS  0' BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  237 

mercy  of  a  few  successful  gamblers ;  and  ruin  seems  to 
have  in  a  moment  overtaken  a  prosperous  and  happy  peo- 
ple. This  is  no  exaggeration,  and  ^vill  soon  be  better  ex- 
plained. 

The  comer  in  which  Mr.  O'Tee  found  himself,  at  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  a  certain  day,  was  so  tight,  that 
the  poor  man,  in  a  few  hours,  not  only  lost  all  his  gains  of 
the  last  five  months,  but  beheld  ^vith  horror  the  prospect 
of  finding  himself  in  a  week  or  two  indebted  to  an  amount 
far  beyond  his  means.  In  fact,  bankruptcy  stared  him  in 
the  face  ;  and  if  he  had  not,  in  spite  of  his  long  degeneracy, 
still  kept  something  of  the  buoyancy  of  an  Irishman,  he 
might  have  gone  to  take  a  hearty  last  dinner,  and  blow  out 
his  brains  at  the  end  of  it.  We  may  assure  our  readers 
that  he  did  not  feel  in  the  least  inclined  to  do  so  ;  but  he 
felt  strongly  disposed  to  challenge  Mr.  Frederick  ;  and  had 
he  met  him  again  in  that  lonely  road  in  the  Park,  late  in 
the  evening,  as  we  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him  and 
hearing  his  animated  conversation  A\'ith  his  "friend,"  he 
would  have,  at  the  very  least,  attempted  to  give  him  a 
sound  but  very  ungentlemanly  thrashing. 

The  success  of  young  Kirkbride  was  so  overwhelming 
that  all  the  morning  papers  of  the  following  day  spoke  of 
it ;  and  when  he  came  as  usual  to  his  oflBce  in  Beaver  Street, 
his  partners,  Mr.  T.  Bland  chiefly,  did  not  really  know  how 
to  receive  him.  Were  they  to  congratulate  him  on  his  tri- 
umph, or  to  remonstrate  with  him  on  this  new  line  of  busi- 
ness in  which  he  was  already  becoming  so  notorious  ? 

But  this  whirling  and  guilty  world  is  too  exciting  for  our 
taste,  if  it  is  not  for  that  of  our  readers  ;  and  it  is  with 
heartfelt  pleasure  that  we  are  summoned  to  a  very  differ- 
ent scene  enacted  in  a  very  different  part  of  the  city ;  for 
we  cannot  leave  the  O' Byrne  family  so  long  in  the  dark. 
We  have  lately  spoken  only  of  our  friend  Con.  What  be- 
came of  his  father  and  sister  since  the  death  of  the  old 
woman  ?  We  are  sure  that  all  those  who  take  the  trouble 
of  perusing  these  pages  have  already  several  times  asked 
themselves  this  question.     But  the  answer  ought  to  have 


238  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

presented  itseK  naturally  to  the  mind  of  all  those  who  were 
prompted  to  ask  the  question.  Julia,  having  no  more  her 
mother  to  care  for,  could  do  nothing  better  than  to  go  and 
live  with  Mrs.  Kirkbride ;  old  Mr.  O' Byrne  naturally  was 
attracted  down  town  by  his  son  and  his  constant  friend 
Mr.  Doyle  ;  so  that  a  new  disposition  of  parties  could  have 
been  made  by  our  readers  without  the  necessity  of  our  tell- 
ing it ;  and  the  miserable  frame  house  which  it  was  so  diffi- 
cult to  find,  is  yet  "to  let;"  and  anyone  can  occupy  it 
who  is  willing  to  pay  yearl}^  four  hundred  dollars  or  less. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride,  in  a  month's  time  after  her  interview  Avith 
her  new  attorney,  had  left  Madison  Avenue,  and  occupied 
a  much  smaller  house,  but  comfortable,  pleasant,  and  a 
great  deal  more  to  her  taste.  She  had  with  her  Julia, 
Bridget,  an  Irish  chambermaid,  and  the  little  Rosa,  who  was 
growing  to  be  a  plump  and  nice  girl  of  sixteen.  The  lady 
had  dismissed  all  her  other  servants,  except  her  coachman. 
We  will,  by-and-by,  know  the  ways  of  this  house  ;  but 
James  Street  ought  not  to  be  neglected,  as  there  are  three 
fine  men  in  it,  such  that  few,  perhaps,  of  like  worth  could 
be  found  in  the  Great  Central  Hotel. 

They  were,  one  evening,  in  Mr.  Doyle's  largest  room; 
this  gentleman  and  the  elder  0' Byrne  smoking  their  pipes, 
and  young  Con  seated  gravely  as  became  his  situation. 
Mr.  Doyle  continued  to  be  employed  in  Beaver  Street ;  the 
new  head  of  the  firm  not  having  thought  proper  to  remove 
him  from  an  establishment  in  which  he  took  but  a  mode- 
rate interest. 

"AVell,  Con,"  said  old  O'Byrne  to  his  son,  ''  do  you  find 
in  your  place  the  dangers  which  I  anticipated,  and  for 
which  I  was  afraid  to  let  you  enter  it  ?" 

" Not  exactly,"  answered  the  son  ;  "you  were  chiefly  con- 
cerned, dear  father,  about  the  bad  conij^any  I  might  meet, 
chiefly  bad  women  living  in  bad  houses  ;  this  is  not  in  my 
department.  The  training  the  district  attorney  directed 
me  to  receive,  fits  me  for  catching  larger  fish.  I  have  to 
look  after  important  rogues;  swindlers  on  a  large  scale; 
defaulters  in  public  and  private  establishments ;  all  those 


MR.  CORNELIUS  0' BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  339 

men  who  want  to  make  a  rapid  fortune  by  filling  their  cof- 
fers with  the  property  of  others,  either  the  property  of  rich 
merchants,  as  burglars  do ;  or  that  of  the  firms  which  em- 
ploy them  as  clerks,  bookkeepers,  etc. ;  or  of  the  Govern- 
ment itself,  as  any  rascal  who  has  obtained  by  intrigue  an 
office  which  he  looks  upon  as  a  sure  means  of  soon  becom- 
ing rich  at  the  public  expense.  I  begin  to  take  a  deep  in- 
terest in  my  avocation  ;  as  it  opens  before  my  eyes  views  of 
which  I  was  before  perfectly  ignorant,  and  which  show  me 
the  world  as  an  immense  swindling  concern  in  which  nearly 
every  one  is  only  intent  on  robbing  everybody  else.  This, 
I  confess,  is  not  a  great  danger  and  strong  temptation  for 
me,  as  I  perceive  that  not  a  single  one  of  them  is  in  truth 
more  happy,  even  after  he  has  fully  succeeded  ;  and  inde- 
pendently of  religion — which,  thank  God,  I  still  continue  to 
practice,  and  ever  shall  if  God  spares  me — independently,  I 
say,  of  the  precepts  of  religion,  which  teU  me  plainly  not  to 
steal,  I  become  every  day  more  convinced  that  the  best  way 
for  a  man  to  live  contented  is  to  acquire  a  competency  by 
fair  means,  and  avoid  all  the  tricks  forbidden  by  the  sev- 
enth commandment. 

''Astonished  at  some  of  my  late  discoveries,  which  have 
proved  to  me  that  in  this  country  there  is  not  a  single  class 
of  men  proof  against  the  thirst  for  gold  ;  that  even  some  of 
the  first  men  in  the  state  run  unblushingly  the  race  of  cor- 
ruption, and  rob  the  public  coffers  as  if  they  were  common 
property  ;  I  inquired  lately  of  the  district  attorney — who, 
although  not  a  Catholic,  has  all  the  strictness  of  one  in  the 
matter  of  honesty — if  it  had  always  been  so,  and  if  in 
the  time  of  Washington  and  his  compeers,  the  same  was 
practiced  by  public  men,  as  well  as  by  private  merchants, 
manufacturers,  clerks,  etc.  He  told  me  most  positively, 
No  !  He  said  that  at  all  times  there  have  been  men  intent  on 
making  money  at  the  expense  of  others,  as  covetousness  is 
a  common  perverse  inclination  of  human  nature  ;  but  that 
it  is  only  a  few  years  back  that  the  disease  has  spread 
among  all  classes  and  tainted  even  those  who  ought  to  set 
the  people  the  example  of  integrity.     '  I  was  glad  to  hear  it,' 


240  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

I  said,  '  because,  had  it  been  otherwise,  had  it  been  so  from 
the  beginning  of  this  republic,  it  would  be  a  proof  that  it  is 
possible  for  a*  state  to  last  in  the  midst  of  universal  corrup- 
tion ;  and  then  scarcely  a  hope  of  a  change  for  the  better 
could  be  entertained,  as  scarcely  anybody  would  perceive 
the  importance  of  it ;  but  in  the  contrary  case,  the  evil 
w^ould  soon  become  so  flagrant  that  there  would  finally  be 
a  general  outcry  against  a  state  of  things  which  supposed 
each  one  to  be  set  against  all  the  others.'  The  gentleman 
was  good  enough  to  tell  me  that  I  had  uttered  a  profound 
saying  ;  but  I  replied  that  it  was  only  a  very  simple  and 
rational  view  of  the  matter." 

"I  am  very  glad.  Con,"  said  the  father,  ''that  you  are 
not  even  tempted  either  against  the  sixth  commandment,  or 
against  the  seventh ;  but  be  sure,  my  boy,  that  it  is  your 
religion  that  preserves  you.  The  district  attorney,  as  you 
call  the  gentleman  that  is  in  the  way  of  making  you,  may 
be  a  man  of  honesty,  '  although  not  a  Catholic,'  as  you  say, 
but  I  maintain  that  there  are  mighty  few  of  that  sort,  and 
that  whoever  does  not  examine  his  conscience  at  night  is  a 
poor  observer  of  the  Decalogue  even  if  he  be  a  Catholic." 

"You  are  right  there,  father,"  exclaimed  Con;  "fori 
know  some  Catholics  who  are  not  much  more  scrupulous 
than  others  with  regard  to  the  seventh  precept ;  but  as  they 
never  go  to  confession,  it  is  easy  to  conclude  that  they 
never  examine  their  conscience ;  and  I  put  it  to  both  of  you, 
What  good  can  it  do  them  if  they  don' t  do  what  they  know 
they  ought  to  do  ?  They  may  belong  to  the  true  religion 
by  'faith,'  but  they  do  not  belong  to  it  by  'good  works  ;' 
and  as  we  are  not  Protestants,  thank  God  !  '  good  works ' 
for  us  are  as  important  for  salvation  as  '  faith.'  " 

This  remark  tickled  good  Mr.  Doyle,  who  laughed  out- 
right and  said  :  '  I  will  keep  in  my  memory.  Con,  the  dis- 
tinction between  '  faith '  and  '  good  works '  in  the  way  you 
have  put  it ;  and  whenever  I  repeat  it  I  am  sure  to  '  bring 
down  the  house.'  But  in  what  you  have  said  besides,  I 
wonder  at  one  thing  :  that  you  have  not  spoken  of  politics. 
I  thought  you  would  remark  that  the  great  swindlers  and 


MR.  CORNELIUS  0' BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  241 

robbers  are  all  of  them  republicans,  bnt  that  true  demo- 
crats keep  brightly  on  the  line  of  honor." 

''I  see,"  replied  Con,  *'that  you  are  still  riding  your 
hobby,  Mr.  Doyle.  I  see  great  rogues  in  both  parties ;  I 
must  say,  however,  that  lately  the  republican  side  has  the 
best  of  it  in  point  of  roguery  ;  and  if  they  continue  the  way 
they  go,  they  will  break  down  not  only  the  Government  but 
society  itself.  Hence,  be  sure,  my  dear  sir,  that  when  I 
have  a  vote,  I  shall  not  cast  it  for  any  of  them,  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that  I  will  find  plenty  democrats  of  integrity  to 
vote  for." 

"  Hurrah  !  "  cried  out  Mr.  Doyle  ;  "I  knew  that  you  be- 
longed to  the  old  stock,  and  that  you  would  not  stain  your 
name  and  country  with  any  bad  associations.  But,  in  con- 
clusion, I  must  say  that  I  agree  perfectly  well  with  your 
father  and  with  you  ;  the  important  thing  is  to  remain  truly 
religious ;  then  the  practice  of  the  Decalogue  is  sure  to 
follow,  and  with  it  a  sounder  integrity  than  that  of  the 
mere  philosopher." 

At  this  stage  of  the  conversation,  somebody  knocked  at 
the  door,  and  the  call  being  answered,  our  Mend,  young 
Kyran  Talty,  entered,  and  said  that  he  wished  to  see  Mr. 
Cornelius  C  Byrne  in  private.  This  young  gentleman  went 
out,  therefore,  and  the  two  old  cronies,  shortly  after  this, 
said  their  prayers  and  went  to  bed. 

At  the  door  of  the  house  James  Ahern  was  standing,  wait- 
ing for  his  two  friends,  who  soon  joined  him,  when  they  all 
went  up  James  Street  to  Chatham,  thence  to  the  police 
station  house  at  the  Park,  where,  being  well  known,  they 
were  allowed  to  enter  a  private  room  and  have  a  talk  to- 
gether. 

For  several  days  the  two  young  Irishmen  had  been  very 
busy  following  the  instructions  of  Cornelius  O' Byrne. 
Ahern  had  found  Aladdin's  palace  ;  Talty,  a  rogue's  den  ; 
and  as  the  real  state  of  things  had  been  perfectly  ascer- 
tained only  late  that  evening,  they  both  came  to  report 
without  losing  a  moment. 
16 


242  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

Ahern,  who  was  enjoined  to  look  after  Mr.  Frederick, 
had  very  soon  fonnd  that,  except  the  rather  short  time  he 
kept  in  the  company  of  some  friends  at  the  Great  Central 
Hotel,  his  evenings,  and  even  nights,  were  often  passed  in- 
side of  a  splendid  house  far  up  town.     Looking  in  the  Elite 

Directory  he  saw  there  the  names  of  two  ladies  :  Mrs.  M , 

and  Miss  A ;  nothing  more.     In  rambling  around  the 

block,  during  the  day,  he  entered  into  conversation  with  a 
coachman — evidently  a  Milesian — who  was  attending  to  his 
duty  in  the  private  stables  of  a  gentleman  living  near  by ; 
and  he  learned  from  him  that  those  two  ladies  were  well 
known  in  the  neighborhood,  although  they  were  said  to 
visit  nobody.  The  old  one  was  called  the  aunt  of  the  young 
one,  who  was,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  refined 
persons  of  the  city.  They  were  foreigners,  either  from  Italy 
or  Spain — so  people  pretended,  at  least — and  most  people 
in  the  neighborhood  thought  they  were  very  rich  in  their 
own  country,  and  had  come  to  spend  their  money  in  the 
New  World.  Others,  few  in  number,  laughed  at  this  inno- 
cent belief — they  were  bad  tongues  surely.  According  to 
them,  those  two  females,  the  young  one  chiefly,  possessed 
nothing  except  refinement  and  beauty ;  yet  they  lived  in 
splendor,  but  in  perfect  seclusion.  All  the  expenses  of  the 
house,  which  must  be  very  large,  were  borne,  according  to 
the  same  slanderous  tongues,  by  a  young  gentleman  well 
known  in  the  city ;  but  the  honest  Milesian  would  not  tell 
the  name,  as  he  was  sure  it  was  all  calumny. 

Of  course.  Ahem  had  his  own  opinion  on  the  subject,  and 
came  to  report  it  to  his  friend  Con.  He  had  taken  informa- 
tion from  other  neighbors,  and  ascertained  that  the  cost  of 
supporting  such  an  establishment  must  be  enormous.  There 
were,  at  least,  ten  servants  in  the  house  ;  half  a  dozen  very 
fine  horses  ;  carriages  of  every  description,  and  most  costly. 
Often,  late  dinners  were  given  to  a  large  company ;  but  that 
company  was  mixed  and  nondescript.  It  was  not,  there- 
fore, a  rich  family  establishment  with  its  open  connections 
with  the  outside  world  ;  its  regular  lists  of  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances invited  aboveboard  to  its  receptions  and  soirees, 


MR.  CORNELIUS  0' BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  243 

managed  by  an  economical  mistress  of  tlie  house,  limiting  the 
sum  total  of  her  expenses  to  the  known  revenue  of  her  hus- 
band. It  was  another  Psyche's  palace,  but  not  maintained 
by  the  fantastical  fairy  funds.  A  young  man' s  revenue  had 
to  suffice  for  all  this  extravagance. 

When  Ahern  had  finished  his  statement : 

"What  you  have  done,  Jim,  amounts  to  nothing,"  said 
Con.  ' '  Mr.  Frederick  Kirkbride  can  do  with  his  money  what 
he  pleases,  provided  he  does  not  employ  it  for  such  crimes 
as  society  punishes.  You  will  do  well  to  keep  this  to  your- 
self, and  not  to  speak  of  it  to  anybody." 

"But  I  thought,"  interrupted  Ahern,  "that  you  would, 
at  least,  let  his  mother  know,  that  she  might  interpose  her 
authority." 

"Tut,  tut,  man,"  ejaculated  Con.  "The  poor  lady  has 
as  much  power  over  the  young  scamp  as  you  or  I.  Turn 
your  observations  in  another  direction,  and  try  to  find  what 
the  young  man  discusses  with  his  friends  in  the  Great 
Central  Hotel ;  his  palace  up  town  will  furnish  you  nothing 
worthy  of  your  trouble  ;  and,  I  repeat  my  injunction,  not  to 
say  a  word  of  it  to  anybody." 

Mr.  Ahern  was  not  very  much  elated  with  the  result  of 
his  three  or  four  days'  labors,  and  promised  himself  to  limit 
his  future  peregrinations  to  a  narrower  circle.  As  to  our 
friend  Con,  he  merely  exclaimed  in  his  own  mind,  without 
letting  anybody  hear  it : 

"And  it  is  for  this,  that  Frederick  abandons  his  mother 
to  contempt  and  neglect !  He  lavishes  the  wealth  amassed 
by  his  father  on  a  strumpet,  and  does  not  care  for  the 
mother  who  nursed  him  and  brought  him  up  !  " 

We  have  seen  Aladdin's  palace  without  even  looking  at 
it ;  let  us  attend  to  the  rogue's  den,  which  may  turn  out  in 
fact  to  be  more  interesting. 

Talty  reported  to  Con,  that  he  had  found  John  engaged 
in  two  nice  little  operations ;  the  first,  at  the  stock  ex- 
change, the  second,  in  a  lair  of  ruffians  in  Greene  Street. 
This  was  a  more  promising  field  for  the  keen  detective. 
At  the  stock  exchange,  where  John  appeared  to  be  an  idle 


244  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

frequenter,  Talty  was  sure  tliat  tlie  fellow  was  spotting  an 
Irish  broker  by  the  name  of  O'Tee,  the  same  who  had  lost 
so  heavily  on  a  late  occasion ;  and  as  the  man  who  had 
profited  by  his  loss  was  Mr.  Kirkbride,  Talty  was  sure  that 
John  was  a  tool  engaged  for  that  nefarious  object.  Corne- 
lius 0' Byrne  saw  at  once  that  the  foolish  Irish  bird,  not 
having  been  altogether  plucked  on  the  first  occasion,  the 
two  worthy  plotters  were  still  preparing  to  finish  him  up. 

''Look  here,"  said  Con  ;  ''I  would  like,  indeed,  to  oblige 
O'Tee,  as  against  Frederick  and  John,  although  I  have  a 
poor  regard  for  an  Irishman  who  turns  gambler ;  but  I  can 
do  nothing  in  the  matter,  since  the  occupation  of  the  two 
parties  is,  though  contrary  to  morality,  tolerated  by  so- 
ciety ;  and,  as  both  are  engaged  in  a  tricky  trade,  let  each 
of  them  protect  himself  against  the  tricks  of  the  other.  If, 
however,  you  like,  friend  Talty,  to  warn  O'Tee  of  his  dan- 
ger, you  can  do  so  at  your  own  peril ;  and,  if  John  is  treated 
properly  on  that  occasion,  provided  his  bones  are  not  alto- 
gether smashed,  I  do  not  see  that  the  friends  of  right  and 
good  morals  ought  to  be  very  much  concerned  about  it. 
Now  let  us  hear  about  the  'lair  in  Greene  Street.'  " 

Then  the  young  Irishman  related  that,  happening  to 
pass  accidentally  in  that  interesting  district,  he  espied  John, 
who  entered  slyly  one  of  the  many  low  public  houses  in  the 
neighborhood.  He  followed  him  shortly  after,  and  saw  him 
already  in  the  company  of  another.  Sitting  down  at  some 
distance,  he  called  for  a  drink  and  the  papers  of  the  day, 
and  soon  appeared  to  be  deeply  interested  in  their  contents. 
Then  the  conversation  between  the  two  friends  became  more 
animated,  and  he  heard  several  times  the  words  "  Irish  girl," 
and  the  number  and  street  of  a  house  which  corresponded 
exactly  with  the  house  where  Julia  lived  vdth.  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride. John's  companion  was  a  low-browed  rufiian,  whose 
language  was  not  evidently  very  refined  and  grammatical, 
since  Talty  could  never  understand  a  word  of  what  he  said, 
and  several  other  peculiarities  of  the  man,  which  he  men- 
tioned, convinced  Con  that  it  was  no  other  than  Schwitz, 
the  outlaw.    When  they  separated,  they  agreed  to  meet  on 


MR,  CORNELIUS  0' BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  245 

a  certain  day,  at  dusk,  in  a  lonely  place  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  city — not  for  an  attack,  to  which  the  stranger 
seemed  to  be  strongly  disinclined,  but  for  a  final  discussion 
of  the  matter.  Talty  was  sure  that  John  gave  money  to  the 
other  in  going  away. 

"You  are  indeed  a  jewel ! "  exclaimed  Con.  "I  must  be 
vdth  you  at  that  other  meeting,  and  I  hope  we  shall  spot 
and  cage  two  villains." 

But,  meanwhile,  Mr.  Talty  went  to  pay  a  private  visit  of 
his  own  to  Mr.  O'  Tee,  and  introduced  himself  in  rather  a 
characteristic  way :  ' '  You  are  an  Irishman,  sir,  are  you 
not?" 

"  I  think  I  am,  sir  ;  what  do  you  want  of  me  ? " 

"  I  want  nothing  of  you,  as  I  am  not  a  stock  gambler,  but 
for  the  sake  of  old  Ireland,  which  you  ought  to  love,  I  come 
to  warn  you  of  a  danger." 

O'Tee  did  not  know  first  if  he  ought  to  resent  what  he 
considered  an  altogether  insolent  and  insulting  tone,  or  listen 
without  anger  to  so  strange  a  visitor  ;  but  after  a  moment, 
reflecting  on  the  queer  ways  of  some  of  his  countrymen,  he 
forced  himself  to  smile,  and  said :  "The  interest  you  take 
in  me,  sir,  by  coming  to  Svarn  me  of  a  danger,'  is  little  in 
keeping  with  your  speech  ;  however,  talk  on  ;  I  am  listen- 
ing." 

"Have  you  remarked,"  inquired  our  young  friend,  "a 
fellow,  formerly  a  footman  in  Mr.  Kirkbride's  house,  who 
now  goes  regularly  to  the  exchange,  and  sits  in  your  neigh- 
borhood ? ' ' 

"I  have,"  said  Mr.  O'Tee,  "but  what  danger  can  I  fear 
from  him?" 

"He  spots  you,  sir,  and  spies  you  out ;  he  is  more  keen 
than  you  think,  and  knows  all  the  inside  of  your  game,  to 
report  it  to  his  master,  who  has  already  plucked  you,  and 
intends  to  pluck  you  of  your  other  feathers." 

"  Is  that  possible ? "  ejaculated  Mr.  O'Tee. 

"It  is  a  fact,"  sternly  replied  young  Talty.  "I  have 
told  you  all  I  had  to  communicate,  and  so  good-by." 

O'Tee  was  bewildered,  reflected  on  all  he  had  previously 


246  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

observed  of  the  conduct  of  the  ex-footman,  and  finally  be- 
came convinced  of  the  truth  of  this  warning.  He  took 
immediate  measures  to  prevent  further  mischief  on  the  part 
of  John.  There  was  no  question  of  a  challenge  here  ;  it  was 
merely  to  be  a  caning.  He  procured,  therefore,  a  strong 
but  light  rattan,  and  next  time  he  went  to  the  exchange  he 
took  it,  in  appearance  carelessly,  instead  of  the  little  tiny 
switch  which  it  was  then  the  fashion  for  young  men  to 
carry.  He  occasionally  glanced  at  John,  without  seeming  to 
notice  him  ;  and  only  took  care  to  manage  his  business  so  as 
to  throw  the  detestable  spy  altogether  out  of  the  right  track ; 
and  when  the  heat  of  business  was  over,  he  went  out  first, 
and  waited  patiently  outside  for  the  appearance  of  the  fellow. 

One  can  easily  imagine  what  took  place  in  the  street.  A 
ring  was  soon  formed  around  the  broker  and  his  victim,  who, 
being  naturally  a  coward,  and  having  no  means  of  defense 
except  his  fists,  received  such  an  effective  thrashing  that 
when  O'Tee  left  him  alone,  some  of  the  bystanders  had  to 
carry  him  to  a  hack,  by  which  he  was  taken  to  the  Great 
Central  Hotel.  He  had  to  spend  more  than  a  week  in  his 
bed,  under  the  care  of  a  surgeon,  for  the  cure  of  a  number 
of  long  and  narrow  blisters,  raised  all  over  his  body  by 
0' Tee's  rattan. 

The  only  drawback  to  this  affair,  in  the  eyes  of  Mr.  Cor- 
nelius O' Byrne,  was  that  it  postponed  the  interview  between 
John  and  Schwitz  ;  and  Talty  had  to  be  again  on  the  watch, 
after  John's  recovery,  to  find  out  when  the  two  ruffians 
would  meet  again. 

But  Mr.  O'Tee  was  not  satisfied  with  the  heavy  whipping 
infiicted  on  John  ;  he  saw  clearly  that  his  greatest  enemy 
was  the  master,  and  not  the  valet ;  he  remembered  acutely 
the  trick  played  on  him  in  Sixth  Avenue,  and  the  conse- 
quent loss  he  had  sustained  at  the  exchange  on  that  occa- 
sion ;  he  was  keenly  alive  to  his  present  precarious  situation. 
Our  readers  remember  that,  when  he  was  lately  plucked  so 
cruelly,  he  foresaw  that,  in  consequence  of  his  actual  loss, 
he  would,  in  a  couj^le  of  weeks,  find  himself  short  in  several 
heavy  contracts,  and  ruin  stared  him  in  the  face.     A  late 


MB.  CORNELIUS  O'BTRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  247 

turn  in  the  funds  had  somewhat  modified  his  apprehensions. 
He  might  yet  weather  the  storm,  if  he  used  much  caution 
and  prudence  ;  but,  in  the  present  excited  state  of  his  feel- 
ings, he  desired  not  only  to  save  himself,  but  to  turn  the 
scales  on  his  enemy,  and  make  him  bleed  copiously.  He 
had  friends,  many ;  he  went  directly  to  see  them,  and  detailed 
what  he  knew  of  the  infamous  tricks  of  his  antagonist.  Mr. 
F.  Kirkbride  was  a  common  enemy,  whom  all  had  interest 
to  put  down,  since,  not  satisfied  with  the  enormous  chance 
his  large  capital  gave  him,  he  resorted  to  low  cunning  and 
treachery  to  scatter  ruin  around,  and  deprive  of  a  living 
men  who  had  a  right  to  the  fruit  of  their  industry  and  skill. 
To-day  the  young  rich  merchant  was  intent  on  the  destruc- 
tion of  O'Tee  alone;  as  soon  as  he  had  finished  him,  he 
would  turn  his  murderous  attentions  on  another.  All  must 
club  together  to  prevent  him  from  doing  mischief. 

Thus  the  excited  O'Tee  succeeded  in  gathering  the  ele- 
ments of  a  furious  storm  around  the  devoted  head  of  Fred- 
erick, who  did  not  suspect  it  in  the  least,  and  thought,  on 
the  contrary,  that  his  wealth  would  not  only  procure  him 
consideration  at  the  exchange,  as  well  as  everywhere  else, 
but  also  secure  him  from  outside  annoyance,  and  allow  him 
to  carry  on  his  plots  without  opposition  and  in  complete 
security. 

O'Tee  was  keen,  as  we  are  already  aware.  If  he  did  not 
know  the  actual  plans  of  his  antagonist,  he  had  previously 
studied  his  method  of  warfare,  and  this  was  already  a  great 
advantage.  But  the  best  of  it  was  that,  among  the  friends 
whose  sympathy  he  had  enlisted,  there  were  two  or  three  of 
the  most  skillful  gamblers  in  funds  to  be  found  in  the  city. 
A  young  man,  endowed  only  with  keenness  and  assurance 
on  account  of  his  wealth,  stood  a  poor  chance  of  succeeding 
against  such  a  bright  combination  of  financial  talent. 

The  consequence  was  that  a  few  days  later,  after  they  had 
skillfully  arranged  their  means  of  attack  and  defense,  when 
the  tug  of  war  between  Trojans  and  Greeks — that  is,  be- 
tween bulls  and  bears — took  place  in  earnest,  Frederick,  at 
the  end  of  the  day,  remained  a  splendid  example  of  extra- 


248  LOUISA  KntKBRIDE. 

ordinary  reverses  of  fortune,  and  had  to  register  in  his 
memorandum  book  a  beautiful,  long  list  of  margins  he 
would  have  to  pay.  He  could  bear  it  well,  as  he  was  yet 
rich  ;  but,  together  with  palaces  up  towTi,  high  living  at 
the  Great  Central  Hotel,  his  negative  revenues  at  the  Board 
could  not  but  tell  on  his  aggregate  wealth,  and  even  sour 
his  temper  to  a  remarkable  degree. 

When  he  returned  to  his  hotel,  he  found  John,  who  was 
beginning  to  walk  for  the  first  time  since  his  mishap,  and 
told  him  to  follow  him  to  his  room.  *' You  are  a  fine  fel- 
low, indeed,"  he  began  to  say,  *'to  give  me  such  correct 
intimation  of  0' Tee's  game,  the  last  time  you  went  to  the 
exchange !  According  to  you,  I  would  find  him  weak  on 
several  stocks  which  you  named,  and  it  turned  out  to  be 
precisely  the  reverse  when  I  commenced  acting  on  your 
suggestions.  This  set  me  all  wrong  at  the  very  beginning 
of  the  game,  and  the  result  is  a  loss,  which  I  have  not  yet 
ascertained,  but  which  must  be  heavy.  Of  what  service 
can  you  be  to  me  as  an  '  agent,'  if  you  open  traps  for  me  to 
fall  into?" 

"Thus  you  attribute  your  losses  to  me,  sir,"  replied  John 
with  a  great  deal  of  warmth.  "The  information  I  gave  is 
now  more  than  a  week  old,  and  things  may  have  changed 
in  the  interval.  Is  it  because  my  faithfulness  to  you  has 
stretched  me  on  a  bed  for  seven  long  days,  that  you  are  angry 
against  me  !  If  you  do  not  want  me  any  more,  say  so,  and 
we  will  come  to  a  settlement." 

Frederick  perceived  that  his  acrimony  had  carried  him  a 
a  little  too  far  ;  and  wishing  to  soothe  the  feelings  of  his 
"agent,"  he  said  with  more  calm:  "I  want  you  again, 
friend  John  ;  but  try  to  be  more  exact  next  time,  as  it  is  not 
pleasant  to  be  plucked  as  I  was  to-day.  Can  you  go  again 
to-morrow  to  your  place  of  observation  ? " 

"Yes;  catch  me  there  again,  after  the  salute  I  have  re- 
ceived! Don't  you  see  that  I  would  be  only  thrashed  a 
second  time  ?  You  must  have  some  new  plan  to  propose 
that  I  can  accept,  or  I  must  remain  quiet  here  and  attend  to 
my  own  business." 


MR.  C0BNELIU8  0' BYRNE  AS  A  DETECTIVE.  249 

Frederick  was  scarcely  prepared  to  open  a  new  ''plan," 
as  lie  had  not  thought  of  it ;  he,  therefore,  merely  told  John 
that  he  would  think  of  it,  and  he  might  himself  see  what 
was  best  to  be  done  ;  their  collected  wisdom  would  certainly 
invent  something  worth  trying. 

But  after  a  night  of  feverish  excitement,  the  reception  he 
met  Avith  at  the  counting-house  the  following  day  was  not 
much  calculated  to  cool  down  his  temper  and  restore  him 
to  his  former  tranquillity.  The  public  papers  were  full  of 
details,  in  their  money  articles,  of  what  had  transpired  the 
day  before  on  the  great  financial  stage  in  Wall  Street.  The 
bewildered  partners  of  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  arrived  long  before 
him,  and  had  time  to  hold  a  consultation  together  on  what 
was  best  to  be  done  ;  so  that  when  the  young  gentleman 
came  in,  as  soon  as  he  was  seated  in  his  private  office,  they 
all  went  in  a  body,  Mr.  T.  Bland  at  their  head,  to  state 
plainly  their  sorrow  at  his  persistence  in  a  course  incompati- 
ble with  his  duties  as  a  merchant ;  and  they  proposed,  in 
conclusion,  either  that  he  should  buy  their  share  at  a  proper 
value  or  state  what  he  thought  his  own  part  of  the  busi- 
ness amounted  to. 

The  young  gentleman  did  not  expect,  it  is  true,  to  listen 
so  soon  to  such  plain  and  unmistakable  language  ;  but  he 
himself  during  the  night,  had  examined  attentively  many 
questions  connected  with  this  great  one  of  the  firm  in  Beaver 
Street,  and  he  had  concluded  to  give  up  his  share  in  the 
concern,  in  order  to  increase  the  bulk  of  capital  available 
for  great  stock  operations.  The  fatal  words  of  Mr.  James 
Friskey  on  the  subject  were  deeply  imprinted  in  his  mind  ; 
and  he  had  no  doubt  that  he  would  soon  recover  from  his 
late  loss,  which  was  merely,  in  his  opinion,  "the  result  of 
an  accident."  He,  therefore,  accepted  the  proposal  of  these 
gentlemen,  and  told  them  that  in  a  few  days  he  would  state 
his  terms  ;  they  might  reflect  on  their  own. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

MR.  FREDERICK  VISITS  HIS  MOTHER,  AND  BEGII^S  TO  OPERATE 
I]S-   WALL   STREET   OX  A  LARGE   SCALE. 

Surprising  as  it  may  seem  in  the  midst  of  so  many  trou- 
blesome affairs,  Frederick  thought  of  his  mother,  whom  for 
a  long  time  he  had  altogether  neglected.  He  reflected,  by 
chance,  that  the  first  term  of  her  annuity  was  due,  or  rather 
had  been  already  some  days  due.  Perhaps,  also,  he  even 
went  so  far  as  to  blush  inwardly  at  the  thought  of  what 
people  would  say  when  they  heard  that  he  did  not  visit  so 
worthy  a  lady  and  such  an  excellent  parent.  So  he  finally 
acknowledged  to  himself  that  he  had  very  good  reasons  to 
go  and  inspect  how  her  new  quarters  looked. 

In  fact,  we  ourselves,  who  take  a  much  greater  interest  in 
her  than  her  wretched  son,  know  nothing  as  yet  of  a  spot 
much  more  attractive,  certainly  in  our  estimation,  than 
the  haunts  we  have  been  lately  compelled  to  visit,  to  wit, 
the  Great  Central  Hotel,  the  stock  exchange,  the  '^lair  in 
Greene  Street,"  etc. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride's  worthy  attorney  had  selected  for  her  a 
building  of  no  very  imposing  appearance,  yet  decent,  and 
in  a  most  respectable  part  of  the  city — the  exact  position 
has  been  stated  above.  The  interior  was  handsomely  fitted 
up,  as  the  best  part  of  the  furniture  had  been  taken  up 
there  from  Madison  Avenue.  A  green  plot  of  grass,  and  a 
few  nice  flowering  shrubs  took  the  place  of  a  garden  behind 
the  house.  In  a  corner  of  the  plot  a  very  small  emi)ty  con- 
servatory, left  by  the  previous  occupant  of  the  place,  was 
tilled  with  the  choicest  plants  of  the  former  mansion.    Mrs. 

250 


MR.  FREDEEICK  OPERATES  IN  WALL  STREET.        251 

Kirkbride  had  a  great  fondness  for  flowers.  On  one  side  of 
the  building,  a  small  gore  of  ground,  taken  from  the  next 
lot,  for  some  reason  or  other,  by  one  of  the  previous  owners, 
contained  a  very  small  but  neat  stable  where  just  one  horse 
and  a  carriage  could  find  place. 

There  the  lady  we  know  already  so  well  spent  her  days 
of  widowhood,  her  heart  sorely  wounded  still  by  her  pre- 
vious loss,  and  by  the  present  neglect  and  the  blameworthy 
conduct  of  her  only  son.  A  few  intimate  friends  visited 
her  ;  the  lady  who  had  given  her  the  first  intimation  of  the 
immoral  behavior  of  Frederick,  Mrs.  Kingsley ;  the  well- 
meaning  Dr.  Dixon,  who  considered  Mrs.  Kirkbride  as  one 
of  the  most  interesting  members  of  his  flock  ;  but  chiefly, 
the  excellent  Dr.  Dillon,  who  came  frequently  to  spend  an 
hour  or  so  in  the  afternoon.  The  lady  herself,  in  her  weeds, 
was  dispensed  from  appearing  in  the  world,  and  chiefly 
from  keeping  an  open  house  and  sending  invitations  to  re- 
ceptions and  parties.  Her  small  interior  world  was,  in  fact, 
composed  of  three  Irish  girls  and  sweet  litle  Rosa ;  for  the 
dull -looking  Englishman  who  attended  to  the  horse  and 
the  grounds,  could  scarcely  be  said  to  live  in  the  house  ;  he 
found  his  quarters  on  the  top  of  the  stable,  and  indeed 
inconvenienced  nobody,  going  to  the  kitchen  only  for  his 
meals,  and  always  good  humoredly  ready  for  a  ride,  when 
the  lady  wanted  to  drive  in  the  Park. 

The  interior  of  the  house  and  the  life  of  its  inmates  was 
simple  and  pleasant ;  never  was  a  harsh  word  heard  there  ; 
every  one  was  cheerful  though  occupied  from  morning  to 
night.  Julia  spent  most  of  her  time  in  Mrs.  Kirkbride' s 
apartment,  sewing  and  embroidering  a  number  of  handker- 
chiefs, caps,  body  linen,  etc.;  the  chambermaid  had  plenty 
to  do  to  keep  the  house  in  order  ;  Bridget  was  promoted  to 
the  office  of  cook  ;  and  as  to  little  Eosa,  she  did  all  the 
light  work  that  was  to  be  done.  The  three  Irish  girls  lived 
in  the  house  almost  as  if  they  had  been  in  a  convent ;  they 
said  their  prayers  together,  and  often  Mrs.  Kirkbride  came 
with  them,  bringing  the  little  girl,  who  never  objected,  sweet 
child,  to  anything  her  mistress  asked  of  her.     On  Sundays 


252  LOUISA  KinKBRIDE. 

the  Irish  part  of  the  house  went  to  the  nearest  Catholic 
church,  where  they  had  clubbed  together  to  rent  a  pew ;  and 
as  there  Avere  two  unoccupied  seats  in  it,  whenever  the  lady- 
found  it  too  inconvenient  to  go  in  her  little  carriage  as  far 
as  Trinity,  she  never  failed  to  take  Rosa  with  her  and  go  to 
fill  the  empty  seats  in  her  servants'  pew.  Thus  she  heard 
both  priest  and  parson,  and  we  will  not  attempt  to  excuse 
her,  either  in  the  eyes  of  her  Episcopalian  coreligionists  or 
of  some  strict  and  severe  children  of  the  true  church  ;  we 
merely  relate  a  fact  consonant  with  the  gentleness  of  her 
disposition  ;  and  we  fervently  hope,  vdth  all  good  Chris- 
tians, that  God  will  reward  her  charity,  and,  in  course  of 
time,  bring  her  entirely  within  the  precincts  of  His  true 
fold.  To  complete  the  sketch  of  the  quiet  life  led  in  this 
house,  we  will  only  mention,  that  occasionally  Julia  went 
on  Sunday  evenings  to  James  Street,  in  the  small  carriage. 
Bridget  generally  went  with  her,  and  they  invariably  took 
with  them  a  basket  of  delicacies  that  Mrs.  Kirkbride  sent 
to  old  Mr.  0' Byrne. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  on  week-days  and  Sundays, 
in  that  quiet,  unpretending  building,  near  the  Central  Park, 
when  Frederick  Kirkbride,  ordering  out  his  splendid  ba- 
rouche, with  two  of  his  finest  horses,  told  his  coachman  to 
drive  him  on  to  the  address  he  had  himself  written  on  a 
card.  In  due  time  the  carriage  stopped  at  the  proper  place, 
and  the  bell  was  answered  by  Rosa,  who  generally  opened 
the  door  to  the  few  visitors  who  came. 

^^  Is  it  you,  Rosetta,  my  darling  ?  How  you  have  grown  ! 
Is  your  mistress  in?  Tell  her  I  want  to  see  her."  By  these 
rapid  questions  Mr.  Frederick  showed  that  he  could  yet 
thaw  in  the  presence  of  a  sweet  and  lovely  object.  But  the 
moment  of  genuine  feeling  was  short,  and  being  ushered 
into  the  parlor,  his  face  soon  resumed  the  harsh  lines  to 
which  it  was  generally  accustomed  ;  the  features  became 
worse,  even,  when  the  young  man  perceived  that  his  mo- 
ther did  not  invite  him  to  her  room,  but  came  down  her- 
self to  the  parlor. 

"  Good  day,  my  dear  mother,"  he  forced  himself  to  say  ; 


MR.  FREDERICK  OPERATES  IN  WALL  STREET.        253 

^^you  think,  perhaps,  I  have  forgotten  you;  but,  believe 
me,  since  I  saw  you  last  I  had  scarcely  a  moment  unoccu- 
pied by  business  of  importance." 

"  I  might  say,  my  dear  son,"  replied  the  lady,  "  that  you 
have  at  least  time  to  take  your  meals,  and  you  might  have 
come  to  share  some  of  mine ;  but  I  know  how  useless  it 
would  be  to  ask  anything  of  you  ;  you  have  always  so 
many  good  reasons  to  give  in  refusal ;  I  hope  you  succeed 
in  your  business  since  you  give  to  it  such  an  unrelenting 
attention," 

"  Yes,  mother;  and  I  just  come  to  bring  you  my  check 
for  your  annuity,  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  had  escaped  my 
thoughts  when  it  fell  due  three  or  four  days  ago." 

*'I  am  happy  that  you  thought  of  it  even  so  soon,  my 
dear  Freddy,"  observed  the  mother;  ''but  I  did  receive 
the  money  yesterday,  so  that  I  cannot  receive  your  check." 

*'How  is  that?"  exclaimed  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride. 

''Well,  my  attorney  got  it  from  yours  the  day  it  was  due, 
and  so  I  have  it." 

The  young  man  blushed  deeply,  and  remarked  to  his 
mother :  "I  really  did  not  expect  that  our  attorneys  would 
meddle  with  such  an  affair ;  would  it  not  be  more  proper  to 
do  it  quietly  between  ourselves  ? " 

"You  see,  Freddy,"  answered  the  lady,  "my  attorney, 
who  is  the  same  gentleman  who  did  so  well  by  your  late 
father,  has  very  little  to  do  in  the  administration  of  my 
business,  so  that  I  could  not  decently  take  away  from  him 
the  collection  of  any  money  due  me.  It  takes  away,  be- 
sides, that  care  from  you ;  and  I  really  thought  you  would 
not  have  any  objection  to  it,  were  it  only  on  that  score." 

The  young  man  appeared  vexed,  as  he  saw  there  was 
really  want  of  confidence  in  him  on  the  part  of  his  mother  ; 
but  he  said  nothing  more  on  this  subject ;  and  after  asking 
how  Mrs.  Kirkbride  found  herseK  in  her  new  establishment 
— which  he,  however,  thought  on  too  poor  a  scale  with  re- 
spect to  her  revenue — after  inquiring  at  what  time  of  the 
day  he  should  come  whenever  he  wished  to  dine  with  her — 
expressing  great  surprise  that  she  had  returned  to  the  old 


254  LOUISA  KIBEBItlDE. 

ways  of  the  country,  and  dined  at  two — after  several  other 
questions  of  less  importance,  lie  left,  feeling  a  void  in  his 
heart,  and  deep-seated  there  a  kind  of  instinctive  repug- 
nance for  the  house  and  its  inmates,  not  excluding — the 
miserable  young  man  ! — his  own  mother. 

When  he  reached  the  Great  Central  Hotel,  he  found  Mr. 
John  waiting  impatiently  for  him,  and  he  directly  admitted 
him  to  his  private  room. 

*' Have  you  reflected,  sir,"  the  honest  confidential  agent 
inquired,  ' '  on  the  new  plan  you  were  to  suggest  for  my 
occupation  ?  I  am  most  anxious  to  be  useful  to  you,  and 
begin  to  grow  tired  of  having  nothing  to  do  the  whole  day 
long." 

"Well,  John,"  answered  the  young  gentleman,  ''I  have 
had  scarcely  any  time  as  yet  to  mature  a  plan  worthy  of 
your  ability  ;  and  the  only  thing  I  could  suggest  would  be 
to  follow  up  0'  Tee,  or  some  of  the  blood-hounds  he  put  on 
my  track  on  that  abominable  day.  You  could  do  it  with- 
out going  regularly  to  the  stock  exchange,  and  thus  expos- 
ing your  precious  person  to  such  treatment  as  you  lately 
received." 

'^I  repeat  to  you,  sir,"  exclaimed  Mr.  John,  ''that  I  can 
have  nothing  to  do  with  O'Tee  and  his  blood-hounds,  as 
you  call  them  ;  but  1  have  myself  something  to  propose 
which  might  turn  out  to  be  of  great  importance  to  you.  I 
heard  you  state  that  you  found  in  the  books  of  your  father, 
that  he  paid  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  on  the  very  day 
he  started  for  Saratoga,  and  that  the  mention  of  it  in  his 
books  is  accompanied  with  a  pencil  mark  giving  merely  the 
name  of  Ernst  Bauer  ;  I  know  the  office  of  the  man,  and  I 
know,  moreover,  that  it  is  he  whom  you  followed  on  that  day 
to  the  county  clerk's  office,  to  see  if  he  deposited  in  it  a 
paper  handed  him  by  your  father.  Do  you  not  see  that 
something  may  result  from  circumstances  that  point  to 
good  prospects  for  the  filling  of  your  purse,  and  the  success 
of  your  further  undertakings  ? " 

"You  are  a  bright  fellow,  John,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride  ;  and  the  two  compeers  arranged  together  the  details 


MR.  FREDERICK  OPERATES  IN  WALL  STREET.        255 

of  an  nndonbtedly  legitimate  piece  of  business,  whicli  conld 
at  least  be  tried,  if  it  did  not  nltimately  succeed.  Without 
entering  into  the  details  of  the  operation,  it  will  be  enough 
to  say  that  John  went  with  his  best  of  smiles  to  the  office 
of  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer.  The  gentleman  was  very  busy  with  a 
great  many  papers  on  his  desk.  To  the  question  if  he  did 
not  remember  that,  on  such  day  of  the  previous  August,  he 
had  received  a  paper  from  the  hands  of  the  late  Mr.  R. 
Kirkbride,  to  deposit  with  the  county  clerk,  he  resolutely 
answered  no.  To  the  further  question  if  he  had  not  been 
some  way  connected  with  the  payment  of  a  large  sum  by 
the  same  gentleman,  he  showed  his  teeth,  and  with  the 
most  emphatic  negative,  pointed  to  the  door,  and  John  had 
nothing  better  to  do  than  follow  the  hint. 

The  report  of  this,  to  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride,  convinced  him 
that  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  had  pocketed  the  sum  of  money, 
and  the  first  thing  to  do,  was  to  try  to  recover  it.  He  went 
first  himself  to  the  county  clerk's  office  ;  but  the  clerk  of 
last  August  was  no  more  there,  and  after  hunting  up,  for 
several  days,  the  old  officer,  he  finally  found  the  gentleman 
now  retired  into  private  life,  consequently,  of  a  most  bland 
and  conciliatory  disposition,  but  who  could  not,  for  the  life 
of  him,  remember  anything  of  the  transaction.  In  vain  did 
Mr.  Kirkbride  tell  him  that  he  himself  had  brought  a  paper 
directly  after  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer ;  he  stated  the  nature  of  the 
paper  he  had  handed  him,  the  very  words  used  in  present- 
ing it,  the  courteous  reply  he  was  happy  enough  to  receive, 
everything,  in  fact,  which  could  call  to  the  remembrance  of 
the  ex-clerk  the  previous  appearance  of  Mr.  E.  Bauer  with 
his  own  paper.  Nothing  could  refresh  the  memory  of  the 
gentleman. 

^'You  see,  sir,"  he  said,  deliberately,  after  having  heard 
all  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  had  to  say,  ''that  a  clerk  at  the  county 
court  office,  receives  calls  of  that  kind  from  morning  to 
night,  and  is  not  expected  to  tax  his  memory  with  the  re- 
membrance of  all  those  who  come  to  him,  precisely  because 
they  leave  papers  which  are,  in  fact,  the  only  thing  to  look 
after.     If  Mr.  E.  Bauer,  since  thus  you  caU  him,  left  with 


256  LOUISA  EIBKBRIDE, 

me  any  document  on  that  day,  it  must  have  passed  through 
the  office  for  record,  or  any  other  usual  purpose  ;  the  clerk 
now  in  office  can  tell  you  how  many  documents  of  that  kind 
were  left  on  that  precise  day,  and  thus  you  may  find  what 
you  want.  As  to  all  the  details  you  give  me,  I  have,  I 
think,  a  faint  recollection  of  them,  and  certainly  remember 
your  face.  But  those  very  details  personal  to  you,  were 
precisely  calculated  to  make  me  forget  entirely  the  gentle- 
man who  had  come  just  before  you." 

Nothing  more  was  to  be  expected,  and  Mr.  Kirkbride 
withdrew.  There  is  no  need  of  mentioning  that  another 
visit  Mr.  Kirkbride  paid  directly  to  the  office,  in  order  to 
have  the  books  inspected  for  the  enumeration  of  documents 
left  on  that  day,  did  not  lead  to  any  satisfactory  result,  and 
the  young  gentleman  had  only  to  go  home  and  confer  again 
with  his  '' confidential  agent." 

"  I  am  sure,  John,"  he  said,  ^'that  Bauer  is  a  thief,  and 
has  in  his  possession  my  one  hundred  thousand  dollars; 
if  you  could  obtain  them  from  him,  or  procure  the  proofs 
for  his  conviction,  I  would  willingly  let  you  have  one-fourth 
of  it,  namely,  twenty-five  thousand." 

This  was  heaping  burning  coals  on  the  already  consuming 
fire  of  covetousness,  natural  to  the  soul  of  a  valet.  John's 
ingrained  cowardice  could  thus  be  changed  into  unreflect- 
ing boldness ;  and,  judging  of  Mr.  E.  Bauer  from  himself, 
he  thought  that  by  presenting  him,  in  a  lonely  place,  the 
filled  barrels  of  a  six-shooter,  he  could  easily  bring  him  to 
terms.  He,  therefore,  for  a  few  days,  studied  the  habits  of 
his  intended  victim,  and  finding  out  that  he  would  meet 
him  alone,  late  in  the  evening,  in  a  certain  lane  up  town, 
through  which  he  used  to  pass  regularly  every  night,  he 
got  a  revolver,  loaded  it,  and  stood  up  at  the  required  time, 
in  a  most  solitary  and  dimly  lighted  spot.  Sure  enough 
the  lawyer  soon  appeared,  and  John,  facing  him  boldly,  ex- 
claimed : 

''  You  remember  my  visit  a  few  days  ago  at  your  office  ; 
you  denied  any  knowledge  of  the  large  sum  intrusted  to 
you  by  Mr.  Kirkbride  ;  I  know  you  have  it ;  you  are  a  dead 


MB.  FREDERICK  OPERATES  IN  WALL  STREET.        357 

man  unless  you  promise  and  give  me  security  to  return  it  to 
its  lawful  owner." 

Mr.  Bauer  did  not  answer  a  word  to  that  rather  long 
speech ;  but  he  was  a  man  of  nerve,  and  looking  at  the 
weapon,  dimly  visible  in  John's  hand,  he  suddenly,  with  a 
rapidity  for  which  his  antagonist  was  not  prepared,  struck 
him  sharply  with  his  stick  on  the  fingers,  more  distract  by 
their  whiteness  than  anything  else  around  :  the  blow  went 
home  so  perfectly  that  the  pistol  fell,  and  John  was  at  the 
mercy  of  Mr.  Bauer.     This  gentleman  simply  said  : 

"I  could  kill  you  with  your  own  weapon  ;  the  best  would 
be,  perhaps,  to  place  you  in  the  hands  of  the  police,  but 
you  must  first  receive  your  deserts." 

And  with  the  heavy  stick  he  always  canied,  and  which 
had  already  so  w^ell  served  him,  he  gave  him  a  severe 
thrashing,  far  more  thorough  than  the  one  administered 
by  Mr.  O'Tee,  and  left  him  writhing  and  bawling  on  the 
ground.  The  pitiful  cries  of  the  poor  valet  attracted  a 
couple  of  police  officers,  who  asked  him  what  was  the  mat- 
ter ;  and  hearing  from  him  that  he  had  been  attacked  and 
beaten  by  a  lawyer,  whom  he  well  knew  to  be  a  thief,  they 
told  him  to  prosecute  him  before  the  courts ;  but,  find- 
ing on  the  ground  the  six-shooter,  and  hearing  that  the 
lawyer  had  struck  him  only  after  he  had  threatened  to  kill 
him,  they  advised  poor  John  to  go  quietly  home  and  use  the 
law  instead  of  such  ugly  weapons.  A  hack  was  called,  he 
was  placed  in  it,  all  bruised,  and  perhaps,  with  some  bones 
broken  ;  and  the  Great  Central  Hotel  received,  for  the  second 
time,  the  prostrate  and  bleeding  form  of  the  once  proud  and 
once  constantly-successful  arch-plotter. 

Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  could  have  no  more  hopes  of  thus  in- 
creasing his  funds  and  procuring  a  "large  capital  for  bold 
operations  in  stocks,"  according  to  the  theory  of  Mr.  Fris- 
key ;  he,  therefore,  the  following  day,  met  his  partners  of 
Beaver  Street,  and,  for  a  good  round  sum  of  several  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  gave  up  all  his  interest  in  the  con- 
cern, which  henceforth  took  the  name  of  T.  Bland  &  Co. 

As  soon  as  John  was  able  to  stand  on  his  feet,  he  was 
17 


258  LOUISA  KIRKBBIDE. 

desired  by  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  to  come  to  his  room  for  an 
important  conference  likely  to  produce  very  beneficial  re- 
sults for  both.  John  came  sulkily  and  took  his  seat  with 
evident  signs  of  bad  humor.  He  told  his  employer  plainly 
that  he  had  reflected  on  his  situation  and  prospects,  and 
had  come  to  the  determination  to  leave  his  actual  position 
unless  he  received  a  higher  remuneration.  When  he  con- 
sented to  become  ^'confidental  agent"  to  the  gentleman,  he 
was  rather  ''green,"  and  agreed  to  receive  a  thousand  dol- 
lars salary,  with  all  his  expenses  paid  at  the  Great  Central ; 
but  experience  had  demonstrated  to  him  that  with  the  pal- 
try sum  of  one  thousand,  he  could  scarcely  keep  himself 
in  decent  clothes  and  enjoy  some  cheap  pleasures.  He 
wished,  besides,  to  be  able  to  deposit  something  in  a  bank 
for  a  "rainy  day,"  and  had  calculated  that  five  thousand 
dollars  would  scarcely  be  equivalent  to  his  troubles  and  his 
needs.  Frederick,  of  course,  could  not  think,  at  first,  of 
complying  with  such  an  extravagant  proposition,  and  ap- 
peared rather  willing  to  let  his  "confidential  agent"  go. 
John,  hearing  this,  bristled  up,  spoke  in  obscure  terms,  stiU, 
of  the  "immense  service"  he  had  rendered  Mr.  Kirkbride, 
and  hinted  that  to  keep  his  tongue  from  talking,  a  pretty 
large  sum  would  be  required.  Being  desired  to  tell  what 
was  the  "immense  service"  he  spoke  of,  and  of  what  his 
tongue  could  speak,  he  came  out  plainly  with  the  old  affair 
of  the  package  directed  to  his  father's  former  attorney. 
"And  what  can  you  do  with  that?"  said  young  Kirkbride, 
sharply.  "Who  told  you,  first,  that  the  jmckage  has  not 
been  handed  to  its  address  ?  and  secondly,  who  had  a  right 
to  open  this  package  after  the  death  of  my  father,  if  not 
myself?" 

"That  can  be  easily  ascertained,"  retorted  John.  "The 
attorney  can  be  applied  to ;  and  the  Surrogate  of  New  York 
might  say  if,  legally,  you  could  keep  that  package  in  your 
hands."  This  was  rather  sharp  and  telling  in  the  mouth  of 
an  ex-footman  ;  but  the  "ex-footman"  had  now,  for  a  long 
time,  studied  shrewdness  and  cunning  at  the  daily  school  of 
his  master,  and  had  become  very  proficient  in  these  accom- 


MM.  FREDERICK  OPERATES  IN  WALL  STREET.         259 

plisliments.  So  that,  in  spite  of  the  rage  which  inwardly 
consumed  Frederick,  this  young  gentleman  had  to  appear 
cool  and  pleasant,  and  come  down  gradually  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  case.  John  was  henceforth  to  receive  fiY^ 
thousand  dollars  ;  had  he  asked  a  sum  equivalent  to  the 
annuity  of  the  mother,  he  might  have  obtained  it  without 
much  more  difficulty. 

But  Mr.  Kirkbride  had  now  the  right  to  speak  of  what 
was  to  be  the  subject  of  the  "conference,"  which,  in  few 
words,  amounted  to  this  :  In  a  late  interview  with  Mr.  Fris- 
key,  who  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  glory,  Mr.  Frede- 
rick had  learned,  secretly,  that  "great  things "  would  short- 
ly happen  at  the  exchange  ;  but  to  prepare  for  a  sharp 
blow,  a  great  deal  more  must  be  known  of  the  private 
"slates"  of  several  strong-backed  brokers  and  heavy  deal- 
ers. The  young  gentleman  took  a  list  from  his  waistcoat 
pocket,  from  which,  with  his  pencil,  he  erased  several  names. 
"You  can  have  no  objection,  friend  John,"  he  said,  "to 
look  after  these  few  gentlemen  ;  there  are  only  half  a  dozen ; 
none  of  them  has  been  yet  subject  to  your  inspection.  I 
don't  think  that  a  single  one  of  them  knows  you  in  the 
least ;  with  prudent  management  you  have  nothing  to  fear 
like  the  previous  unpleasantness  with  that  rascally  O'Tee; 
be  plucky,  and  in  a  week  or  so,  bring  me  positive  news  of 
sucJi  and  sucli  a  character."  And  he  detailed  the  precise 
things  he  wished  his  "confidential  agent"  to  find  out. 

John  looked  at  first  rather  contemptuously  at  the  list ;  but 
the  reading  of  a  couple  of  names  soon  brought  smiles  to  his 
face ;  and,  folding  the  list,  which  he  inclosed  in  a  small 
pocket-book,  he  said  that  he  would  willingly  attend  to  the 
business. 

There  is  no  need  of  saying  here  that  Mr.  Frederick,  when 
he  reached  his  room,  took  the  mysterious  packet  he  had 
kept  in  existence  to  this  day,  opened  and  read  it  again,  and 
saying  to  himself,  "It  is  better  to  destroy  entirely  such  a 
paper,"  he  threw  it  on  the  grate,  where  some  Liverpool 
coal  was  burning  brightly,  and  in  a  few  moments  some  black 
cinders,  turning  red,  flew  up  the  chimney  and  disappeared. 


260  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

Meanwhile,  as  lie  was  now  well,  and  in  high  spirits,  John 
thought  of  his  private  friend  of  Greene  Street,  whom  he  had 
not  been  able  to  see  for  so  long  a  time,  owing  to  his  double 
mishap.  He  had  not  forgotton  the  ''Irish  girl"  against 
whom  he  always  kept  a  grudge,  or  rather  through  whom 
he  wished  to  punish  his  old  enemy,  our  friend  Con  ;  and, 
as  his  purse  was  now  better  filled  than  ever,  he  thought  he 
would  surely  bring  his  friend,  the  outlaw,  to  the  proper 
pitch  of  boldness,  and  thus  have  his  revenge  on  that  de- 
tested Irish  family. 

Mr.  K.  Talty,  on  his  side  had  not  been  altogether  idle 
during  the  protracted  illness  of  the  rascally  valet.  He  had 
visited  several  times  the  low  public  house  in  Greene  Street, 
and  without  raising  the  least  suspicion  in  the  mind  of  any 
one,  he  had  learned  that  John  was  well  known  in  the  estab- 
ment ;  most  of  its  visitors  had  spoken  openly  of  both  beat- 
ings he  had  received,  and  if  some  laughed  at  the  occurrences, 
the  majority  seemed  to  sympathize  with  him  and  to  call  for 
the  day  when  he  would  be  seen  again  in  that  interesting 
locality.  Of  the  "low-browed  ruffian"  he  had  espied  in 
conference  with  John  nobody  would  speak  ;  all  appeared 
either  to  know  nothing  of  him,  or  to  be  under  the  spell  of  a 
secret  they  wished  to  keep  ;  but  the  most  important  result 
of  his  visits  was  that  he  could  easily  know  the  exact  day 
when  John  would  come  back  and  cheer  up  his  friends  by 
his  gentlemanly  appearance  and  dress.  This  he  finally  ascer- 
tained, and  was  present  at  the  entrance  of  the  scoundrel. 
Most  of  those  at  the  time  in  the  room  came  to  shake  hands 
with  him,  and  congratulate  him  on  his  recovery  ;  and  after 
receiving  many  compliments  of  the  sort,  he  could  proceed 
to  business,  and  went  to  sit  near  the  "  low-browed  ruffian  " 
at  one  of  the  small  tables.  Unfortunately,  the  number  of 
people  had  prevented  Talty  from  occupying  a  seat  in  their 
neighborhood,  and  he  could  not  overhear  a  single  word  of 
their  conversation  ;  but,  at  the  end  of  it  he  remarked  that 
they  were  going  to  leave  the  room  together  ;  and  shifting 
his  position  so  as  to  be  on  their  way  to  the  door,  he  was 
glad  to  see  them  part  from  each  other  with  a  shake  of  the 


MR.  FREDERICK  OPERATES  m  WALL  STREET.        261 

hand,  and  to  hear  John  mention  the  place  and  the  time  when 
they  were  to  act.  (The  place  was  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  house, 
and  the  time  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.)  This  was  all 
Talty  wished  to  know,  and  he  went  directly  to  report  it  to 
our  friend  Cornelius  0' Byrne. 

The  plan  adopted  by  the  two  scoundrels,  of  which  our 
friend  was  totally  ignorant,  can  be  briefly  told,  and  mainly 
consisted  of  the  following  well-concocted  piece  of  rascality, 
in  which  John  almost  surpassed  himself  :  A  third  associate 
was  to  be  secured  ;  they  were  to  go  together  to  a  livery 
stable  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  house,  and 
hire  a  carriage  with  two  horses.  Schwitz,  as  driver,  was  to 
lead  his  two  friends  to  the  lady's  residence  ;  John,  perfectly 
disguised  and  alighting  alone,  was  to  call  for  Miss  Julia 
O'Byme,  announcing  that  ''a  sudden  accident  to  her  father 
required  her  immediate  attendance  doA\Ti  town ;  she  would 
find  Mr.  Doyle  in  the  carriage  waiting  for  her ;  no  change 
of  dress  was  necessary."  The  girl  would  certainly  go  out : 
John  follomng  her  would  push  her  inside,  close  the  door  be- 
hind, and  place  her  between  himself  and  the  other  associate. 
A  scream  or  two  was  to  be  expected,  but  Schwitz,  whipping 
his  horses  at  the  same  time,  would  drown  her  cries ;  and 
the  rest  of  the  project  would  be  easily  carried  out.  There 
were  at  the  time  along  the  Harlem  Eiver  infamous  dens 
where  a  girl  could  be  kept,  outraged,  or  killed  without 
anybody  knowing  it,  and  the  papers  of  the  period  occa- 
sionally contained  long  stories  of  abductions  of  the  kind, 
discovered  much  later  by  a  half-sleepy  police.  "^  This  was 
the  abominable  plan  proposed — let  us  hear  of  its  execution. 

Cornelius  0' Byrne,  altogether  unacquainted  with  all 
the  details  just  given,  thought  the  two  ruffians  would  go 
alone  and  on  foot  to  the  place  of  meeting.  Arming  himself 
with  a  good  revolver  and  Talty  with  a  club,  he  imagined 
that  they  would  both  certainly  secure  the  two  rascals. 
They  started,  therefore,  in  time  to  be  on  the  spot  at  the 
appointed  moment,  and  even  before  nine  o'clock  in  the 

*  This  is  an  actual  fact ;  the  New  York  Herald  for  nearly  a  month  related 
well-authenticated  stories  of  the  kind,  though  this  was  previous  to  1860. 


262  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

evening.  But  after  the  meeting  in  Greene  Street,  John  re- 
flected that  it  would  be  a  little  too  late  to  go  with  their 
victim  so  far  as  the  Harlem  River,  and  return  before  mid- 
night, when  Frederick  had  made  an  appointment  with  him 
at  the  Great  Central  Hotel.  Consequently,  he  sent  word  to 
Schwdtz  to  anticipate  the  time  by  half  an  hour  ;  and,  when 
young  Cornelius  with  Talty  arrived  at  the  house,  they  heard 
a  female  scream,  and  saw  a  carriage  starting  nearly  at  full 
gallop.  Con  understood  in  a  moment  that  he  was  late,  and 
had  only  one  way  of  stopping  the  ruffians ;  drawing  his 
revolver  he  shot  one  of  the  horses  in  the  left  hind  leg.  The 
animal  in  an  instant  reared,  kicked,  and  fell ;  both  O' Byrne 
and  Talty  running  at  full  speed  to  overtake  the  scoundrels. 
Unfortunately,  these  were  alive  to  their  danger ;  Schwitz 
had  already  come  down  from  his  seat  at  the  report  of  the 
pistol  and  the  wounding  of  one  of  his  animals ;  and  being 
an  outlaw,  he  was  not  slow  in  taking  his  flight  through  a 
cross-street  just  at  hand.  John  and  his  associate,  opening 
at  once  both  doors  of  the  carriage  at  the  moment  it  was 
going  to  be  overturned  by  the  kicking  of  the  wounded 
horse,  likewise  saw  their  danger,  and  took  s\\iftly  to  their 
heels;  and  young  O' Byrne,  with  his  friend,  knowing  that 
Julia  was  in  the  vehicle,  ran  first,  of  course,  to  her  help  ; 
so  that  the  three  scoundrels  were  soon  out  of  danger. 
Talty  had  very  properly  gone  to  hold  the  sound  horse 
and  keep  him  from  running  away  ;  Cornelius  extricated  his 
sister  from  the  wrecked  carriage,  and  found  with  joy  that 
she  was  nearly  unhurt.  After  she  had  been  safely  taken 
back  to  the  house,  attention  was  paid  to  the  carriage, 
and  some  police  officers  coming  at  the  time,  said  that  it 
belonged  to  the  nearest  livery  establishment,  where  the 
owner  declared  that  he  knew  nothing  of  those  who  had  hired 
it ;  but  the  language  of  the  ''gentleman  "  who  called  for  it 
was  so  correct  and  respectable  that  he  could  not  suspect  any 
improper  purpose,  and  was  perfectly  satisfied  that  it  was  all 
right.  Cornelius  O'  Byrne  simply  referred  him  to  a  magistrate 
to  ascertain  who  should  pay  the  damage,  and  gave  his  card. 
When  Julia  was  taken  to  the  house  by  her  brother,  Mrs. 


MB.  FREDEBIGK  OPERATES  ZiY   WALL  STREET.        263 

Kirkbride  and  Rosa  were  in  the  parlor,  awaiting,  with  great 
anxiety,  the  end  of  the  affair.  The  matter  was  soon  ex- 
plained satisfactorily  to  the  lady,  who  only  wondered  at  the 
boldness  of  the  villains,  and  pressed  to  her  heart  the  yet 
fluttering  and  frightened  girl.  But  Rosa  clung  to  her  with 
such  tenacity,  and  gave  her  such  signs  of  deep  affection, 
that  Mrs.  Kirkbride  herself  was  surprised  at  it,  and  could 
scarcely  understand  it.  The  child  had  always  been  ex- 
tremely docile,  and  even  affectionate  to  her  mistress,  but  had 
never  given  proofs  of  great  warmth  of  soul  until  that  mo- 
ment. The  reason  of  it  was  very  simple,  though  astonishing 
to  the  lady.  She  was  now  sixteen,  when  the  heart  is  awak- 
ened to  tender  feelings  ;  and  since  Julia  came  to  the  house, 
finding  herself  often  with  her,  she  had  imbibed,  unawares, 
the  sweetness  of  her  ever-flowing  kindness,  and  begun  to 
consider  her  as  a  sweet  and  dearly  beloved  sister.  We  know 
nothing  as  yet  of  her  history  ;  but  as  Julia  heard  it  in  de- 
tail a  few  evenings  before,  from  Mrs.  Kirkbride  herself, 
when  they  were  both  working  and  talking  together  alone, 
it  is  proper  that  we  should  learn  something  of  it. 

During  the  flrst  ten  years  of  her  wedded  life,  the  lady 
went  several  times,  with  her  husband,  to  England.  In  one 
of  those  trills,  a  man  of  the  name  of  Carty,  living  in  Lon- 
don, came  several  times  to  see  Mr.  Kirkbride  on  business, 
and  always  brought  with  him  a  little  girl,  his  daughter,  then 
four  or  five  years  old.  This  was  Rosa.  On  one  occasion, 
when  Mr.  Kirkbride  was  absent  for  a  moment,  the  lady  be- 
gan to  talk  with  Carty,  and  asked  him  if  he  had  no  woman 
to  take  care  of  the  child,  and  he  answered,  no  ;  his  wife  was 
dead,  he  did  not  intend  to  marry  again ;  when  he  was 
at  his  work,  the  little  girl  remained  alone  at  home,  and  used 
to  go  to  the  room  oC  a  good  old  Irish  granny,  living  on  the 
same  floor,  but  whenever  he  went  out  for  any  other  purpose 
than  work,  he  took  her  with  him,  to  give  her  air  and  exer- 
cise. The  lady  became  interested  in  the  child,  and  as  she 
then  had  herself  a  little  girl  just  two  years  old — the  one 
whose  death  was  mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  this  story — 
she  wished  to  have  Rosa  to  be  a  companion  and  playmate 


264  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE, 

of  her  Janet.  She,  at  the  time,  attributed  the  sulkiness 
and  indocility  of  her  boy,  Frederick,  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  brought  up  alone  with  a  nurse,  whom  he  soon  learned 
to  beat  and  ill-treat.  Carty  was  at  first  unwilling  to  give 
up  his  child,  chiefly  because  he  would  thus  soon  lose  her 
entirely  by  her  going  to  America  ;  but,  finally,  the  very  sin- 
cere promises  Mrs.  Kirkbride  made  prevailed  on  the  father 
to  part  with  her ;  and,  on  giving  her,  he  said,  with  tears  in 
his  eyes  :  ''  She  is  the  very  picture  of  her  mother,  who  died 
on  giving  her  birth,  twelve  months  after  our  marriage." 
No  mention  was  made  of  religion  during  those  negotiations, 
so  that  Mrs.  Kirkbride  brought  her  up  as  an  Episcopalian. 
Yet  she  was  surprised,  whenever  at  night  she  told  the  child 
to  say  her  prayers,  to  see  her  fall  on  her  knees,  sign  herself 
in  the  name  of  the  blessed  Trinity,  then  join  her  hands  and 
recite  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  beginning  of  the  Hail 
Mary,  which  she  had  not  yet  learned  entirely.  The  lady 
attributed  this,  perhaps  with  justice,  to  the  old  Irish  gran- 
ny ;  but  she  never  prevented  Rosa  from  continuing  the 
practice  ;  and  ever  after  the  little  girl  crossed  herself  when- 
ever she  began  to  pray,  which  simple  act,  on  several  occa- 
sions, highly  scandalized  some  of  the  worshipers  in  Trinity 
Chapel ;  not  the  majority  of  them,  however. 

Rosa,  therefore,  spent  her  infancy  with  Janet,  in  Mrs. 
Kirkbride' s  nursery  ;  and  as  both  children  considered  them- 
selves as  sisters,  Rosa,  hearing  her  little  companion  call  the 
lady  mamma,  she  soon  began  to  do  the  same  ;  and,  instead 
of  being  restrained,  the  lady  kissed  her  every  time  she  did 
so.  There  was,  however,  before  long  an  end  of  it ;  for  Mr. 
Kirkbride,  hearing  one  day  that  word  from  her  lips  ad- 
dressed to  his  wife,  looked  serious,  forbade  the  continuance 
of  it  as  highly  improper,  and  commanded  the  lady  in  very 
positive  terms  to  have  the  child  severely  punished,  that 
she  might  not  do  it  again.  Poor  Mrs.  Kirkbride  almost 
shed  tears  ;  but  as  she  was  an  obedient  wife,  on  that  very 
evening  she  did  herself  what  she  was  commanded  to  do  by 
another  in  the  intention  of  her  husband,  and  she  did  it  with 
as  much  severity  as  she  could  muster,  which  was  very  little. 


MB.  FREDEBICK  OPEBATES  IN  WALL  8TBEET.        <2Q5 

The  child,  however,  unused  to  this,  was  all  bathed  in  tears, 
so  that  the  lady,  taking  Rosa  on  her  bosom,  began  to  con- 
sole her,  saying:  ''Kiss  me,  darling,  bnt  don't  call  me 
mamma  any  more,  since  papa  says  so  ;  yet  I  shall  be  your 
mamma  in  affection,  if  not  in  name." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  herself  related  all  this  to  Julia,  and  added, 
''This  is  the  only  time  that  Rosa  w^as  ever  punished  in  my 
house — and,  poor  child,  she  did  not,  indeed,  deserve  any 
punishment."  She  shared  with  Janet  the  first  teachings  of 
the  lady,  and  it  is  from  her  that  she  learned  reading  and 
writing ;  but  when  the  daughter  of  the  house  was  placed 
under  a  governess,  Rosa,  at  the  positive  command  of  Mr. 
Kirkbride,  w^as  directly  applied  to  the  work  of  a  servant, 
although  of  the  lightest  and  most  appropriate  kind.  Hence 
her  education  was  very  limited  when  the  first  burst  of  a 
genuine  feeling  of  love  was  called  out  by  the  ruffianly  at- 
tempt on  her  dear  friend  Julia. 

On  returning  home,  Cornelius  0' Byrne  was  reflecting  on 
the  course  he  had  better  pursue  toward  John.  His  first 
impulse  was  to  have  him  arrested  that  very  evening  at  the 
Great  Central,  but,  on  reflection,  he  changed  his  mind.  He 
could  scarcely  prove  the  identity  of  the  ruffians  he  had 
stopped  with  those  Talty  had  heard  and  seen  in  Greene 
Street.  None  of  the  three  had  been  recognized  by  the  tw^o 
Irishmen;  the  hour  was  not  exactly  the  one  appointed. 
Julia,  herself,  in  her  fright,  had  distinguished  the  features 
of  nobody,  and  could  not  swear  it  was  John  w^ho  took  her 
to  the  carriage.  Had  Con  been  sure  that  Schwitz  was  one 
of  the  scoundrels,  he  would  certainly  have  acted  in  the  case, 
and  tried  to  secure  his  apprehension,  but  he  only  suspected 
it  was  he,  from  the  general  description  of  Talty  ;  and  Talty, 
who  had  seen  him  in  the  public  house,  knew  nothing  of 
him,  and  had  not  even  heard  of  the  previous  outrage  in 
w^hich  he  w^as  concerned.  So  Cornelius  0' Byrne  thought  it 
was  better  to  let  John  alone  for  this  time,  and  keep  his 
eyes  upon  him  for  a  better  occasion.  There  is  no  need  of 
saying  that  it  would  have  been  useless,  for  some  time,  at 
least,  to  look  for  him  in  Greene  Street. 


266  LOUISA  KIBKBRILE. 

But  as  the  young  Irishinaii  liad  found  out  by  the  several 
reports  of  Talty,  that  the  public  house,  many  tmies  men- 
tioned, was  evidently  the  resort  of  a  gang  of  ruffians,  he 
thought  it  his  duty  to  call  on  the  district  attorney,  inform 
him  of  this,  and  ask  him  what  it  was  proper  to  do  with  re- 
spect to  it.  The  gentleman  received  him  very  courteously, 
heard  with  interest  the  details  of  the  last  affair,  and  con- 
gratulated him  on  his  activity,  and,  after  aU,  success  in  the 
rescue  of  his  sister.  He  approved  his  abstention  with  re- 
spect to  the  arrest  of  John,  and  agreed  with  him  on  the 
importance  of  watching  the  movements  of  the  rascal.  ' '  But, 
my  friend,"  he  added,  ''do  not  go  to  Greene  Street  for  him 
before  a  couple  of  weeks  ;  after  that  time  is  over,  you  will 
do  well  to  send  your  friend  again — Talty,  you  call  him  ? — to 
that  locality.  But  since  you  told  me  before,  that  the  same 
John  was,  for  more  than  a  month,  a  frequenter  of  the  stock 
exchange,  see  if  he  is  not  engaged  in  laying  a  train  for  the 
great  explosion  soon  expected  by  men  who  know  New  York 
well,  and  by  which  a  great  number  of  people  may  be  ruined 
for  ever,  through  the  skiUful  machinations  of  a  pack  of 
swindlers. 

"You  may  know  already,  from  your  own  observations, 
that  the  great  public  malady  is  now  the  thkst  for  gold. 
Almost  everybody  wants  to  make  his  fortune  without  any 
labor,  bodily  or  mental,  and  most  of  them  think  that  the 
best  way  is  to  gamble  in  stocks,  or  in  gold.  Hence  a  great 
public  establishment,  started  at  first  with  the  intention  of 
accommodating  men  engaged  in  lawful  business,  has  turned 
out  to  be  the  worst  gambling  hell  on  earth.  And  not  satis- 
fied with  giving  it  openly  that  character,  they  first  prepare 
their  game  by  rascality,  so  that  when  they  come  to  throw 
their  bait,  the  gudgeons  are  already  in  the  net,  so  artfully 
have  the  meshes  been  previously  woven  around  them. 

"In  all  'gambling  hells,'  since  thus  I  must  call  them, 
there  are  some  rules  of  honor,  which  are  followed  by  their 
habitual  frequenters ;  they  trust  to  chance  and  skill,  in 
playing  their  cards,  but  they  would  consider  it  disgraceful 
to  use  base  means  to  discover  their  antagonist's  game,  and 


MR.  FREDEBICK  OPERATES  IN  WALL  STREET.        267 

they  would  call  robbery,  as  it  is  in  fact,  the  success  ob- 
tained by  such  vile  means.  But  at  the  stock  exchange, 
and  chiefly  preparatory  to  its  operation,  they  consider  it 
fair  to  entrap  beforehand,  those  whom  they  mean  to 
^  pluck,'  as  they  say,  and  the  besotted  public,  instead  of 
opening  their  eyes  to  such  swindling  aboveboard,  run  in 
crowds  to  be  caught^  because  they  imagine  that  they  have 
well  arranged  their  own  plans,  and  that  they  will  them- 
selves catc7i  others.  Nothing  is,  in  fact,  so  contemptible 
and  detestable  in  the  whole  world,  and  it  all  comes  from 
the  blind  fury  with  which  men,  in  our  day,  wish  to  accumu- 
late wealth,  by  means  fair  or  foul,  as  they  happen  to  meet 
it  in  their  way." 

"I  know  something  of  it  already,"  replied  our  young 
friend.  "And  I  am  really  astonished  that  a  country  like 
this,  which  is  sure  to  offer  not  only  a  fine  competency  to 
all,  but  real  and  solid  wealth  to  those  who  are  truly  intelli- 
gent and  industrious,  should  have  already  become  the  dwell- 
ing place  of  maniacs,  intent  on  impossible  schemes ;  since, 
with  the  view  they  all  take  of  it,  it  is  clear  that  the  great 
majority  must  be  plucked  and  reduced  to  penury." 

"You  have  used  the  proper  word,  my  friend,"  interposed 
the  district  attorney;  "they  are  renRj  maniacs,  but  their 
craziness  has  not  yet  fully  appeared,  and,  before  long,  we 
will  all  witness  an  example  of  it,  which  shall  astonish  even 
you.  iS'ow,  your  duty  is  to  look,  with  those  in  whom  you 
confide,  after  the  doings  of  that  Mr.  John.  Ascertain  if  he 
is  on  the  side  of  Friskey,  or  not ;  what  direction  the  ideas 
of  his  employer,  young  Mr.  Kirkbride,  are  taking — that 
fellow  will  before  long  disgrace  his  father  and  his  name — 
and,  if  possible,  on  what  day  the  great  blow  is  to  be  struck, 
since  it  must  surely  come  soon.  In  elucidating  these  in- 
teresting questions,  your  friends  and  yourself  may  find  open 
rascality  at  work,  a  rascality  condemned  even  by  our  very 
loose  laws.  Then  you  will  have  a  fair  occasion  to  pounce 
upon  the  rascal  and  give  him  a  taste  of  the  penitentiary." 

"  There  is  a  difficulty  in  the  way,"  here  remarked  Corne- 
lius 0' Byrne.     "  It  is  to  ascertain  what  the  law  forbids,  and 


268  LOUISA  KIREBBIDE. 

wliat  it  does  not.  I  am  not  a  lawyer,  you  know,  sir ;  my 
education  is  very  limited,  although,  owing  to  your  kind 
advice,  and  to  the  means  you  opened  out  for  me,  I  am  far 
ahead  of  the  position  I  occupied  a  year  ago." 

*'You  are  right  there,"  said  his  interlocutor.  ^'Your 
remarks  are  always  just,  and  to  the  point.  You  would 
make  a  first-rate  lawyer,  if  you  were  given  an  opportunity. 
Could  you  arrange  it,  without  interfering  with  your  duty, 
to  come  and  spend  an  hour,  every  evening,  in  my  office  ?  I 
always  go  back  to  it,  for  an  hour  or  so,  after  my  dinner ;  I 
would  willingly  undertake  to  put  you  on  the  road,  and  to 
give  you  a  friendly  push  as  far  as  you  can  go." 

Cornelius  O' Byrne  thanked  the  gentleman  very  warmly, 
and  said  he  would  speak  to  the  chief  of  police,  on  whom 
alone  it  depended  ;  and  he  would  be  forever  grateful  to  both, 
if  the  thing  could  be  arranged.  Whilst  he  was  saying  this, 
the  district  attorney  was  writing  rapidly  on  a  sheet  of  note 
paper.  He  soon  stopped,  folded  it,  and  gave  it  to  our 
young  friend ;  it  was  a  warm  recommendation  to  induce  the 
chief  of  police  to  grant  the  prayer  of  the  petitioner.  The 
affair  could  not  but  succeed,  and  it  was  soon  arranged  to 
the  satisfaction  of  all  parties. 

During  this  time,  John  was  actively  engaged  in  the  work 
assigned  to  him  by  his  employer ;  and  we  shall  soon  learn 
to  what  effect,  and  for  what  purj)ose.  Mr.  Frederick,  hav- 
ing absolutely  nothing  to  do  but  to  amuse  himself,  since  he 
had  given  up  his  partnership  in  the  commercial  house  of 
Beaver  Street,  thought  he  could  do  nothing  better  than  try 
his  hand  at  stock  gambling,  now  that  he  had  so  large  a 
capital  at  his  command.  When  he  first  went  there,  after 
his  losses  in  his  contest  with  O'  Tee,  he  was  the  cynosure  of 
every  eye ;  and,  had  he  not  been  fully  impressed  with  his 
own  importance  and  wealth,  he  would  have  easily  remarked, 
at  this  present  time,  that  the  former  combination  against 
him  subsisted  in  all  its  strength,  and  had  been  increased 
even  by  the  accession  of  new  members.  He  was  ^'a  fat 
bird  to  pluck,"  and  many  keen-scented  vultures  flocked  to 
attack  the  prey.     The  new  and  powerful  body  of  ^ '  dealers ' ' 


MR.  FREDERICK  OPERATES  IN  WALL  STREET,        269 

with  which  he  had  joined  himself,  and  with  whom  he  in- 
tended to  act,  was  not  yet  prepared  to  begin,  and  would  per- 
haps delay  their  operations  more  than  a  month.  During  all 
this  time,  Frederick  was  to  find  himself  alone  in  the  midst 
of  ''  wolves  "  and  "  eagles  ;"  his  well-filled  purse  being  the 
very  thing  that  attracted  them  ;  and  soon  enough  the  fray 
began  in  good  earnest.  As  it  was  not  with  Mr.  O'Tee  alone 
that  he  had  to  deal — far  from  it — he  could  not  know  any- 
thing of  the  games  played  against  him  by  so  many  hands  ; 
and  even  his  old  antagonist,  Mr.  O'Tee,  had  changed  his 
cards  since  the  last  dealing.  Finally,  friend  John  had  no 
opportunity  of  spying  the  new  combination  of  strokes  di- 
rected at  the  young  millionaire's  money  bag.  Hence,  day 
day  after  day,  Mr.  Kirkbride  lost  much  more  than  he  won. 
But,  infatuated  as  he  was,  he  went  deeper  and  deeper  into 
disastrous  operations,  and  constantly  increased  the  stakes, 
which  he  lost  almost  as  constantly.  Everybody  knows  that 
such  is  the  habitual  course  of  gambling;  yet  nobody  is 
ever  made  wiser  by  the  experience ;  and  the  bait,  after 
many  unfortunate  attempts,  is  always  as  alluring  as  it  was 
at  the  very  first  venture. 

We  must,  for  a  while,  let  the  young  gentleman  lose  both 
his  money  and  his  temper,  and  look  out  for  what  the  next 
chapter  is  to  bring. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

DOINGS  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLEES  —  PEEPA- 
EATIONS  FOE  A  GEEAT  DAY  —  BEAEING  OF  LAW  AND 
MOEALITY   ON  IT. 

As  long  as  Mr.  Frederick  Kirkbride  gambled  on  his  own 
hook  in  the  stock  exchange,  he  bore  his  losses  with  equa- 
nimity, sure  that  when  his  numerous  friends  would  join  in 
the  fray,  he  would  repair  these  losses  by  the  immense  gains 
his  association  with  the  Friskey  interest  would  secure  him. 
He  had  promised  that  he  would  procure  for  them  most  in- 
teresting information  on  the  cards — as  they  say — of  their 
adversaries,  and  would  thus  give  great  help  to  their  plan  of 
operations.  Meanwhile,  however,  his  purse  was  becoming 
fearfully  depleted.  During  the  whole  of  this  contest  with 
O'Tee  and  his  abettors,  it  was  seldom,  indeed,  that  the 
young  stock  gambler  could  inscribe  a  victory  on  his  memo- 
randum book.  He  had,  almost  every  evening,  to  pay  heavy 
margins;  but  as  ''his  capital  was  large,"  he  did  not  first 
appear  to  mind  it  much.  His  money  bag  was  exactly  like 
one  of  those  capacious  Heidelberg  tuns  on  which  the  usual 
draught  of  forty  gallons  or  so  of  pure  neckar  does  not  ap- 
pear to  make  any  impression,  and  which  are  left  tight- 
covered,  without  examination  as  to  how  far  the  depleting 
process  has  gone,  in  the  firm  persuasion  that  it  might  be 
continued  for  months  together  without  any  great  diminu- 
tion in  the  total  quantity.  But  alas  !  if  some  provident 
overseer  of  the  great  baronial  cellars,  curious  to  know  the 
real  state  of  the  case,  lifts  up  the  immense  cover,  he  shud- 
ders at  the  sight  of  the  dim  and  prodigious  vacuum,  pro- 

270 


DOINGS  AND  8A  TINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS    271 

duced  by  days  of  indiscriminate  tapping.  So  it  was  exactly, 
when  Mr.  Frederick,  on  a  day  of  leisure,  took  upon  himself 
the  extra  labor  of  an  arithmetical  calculation,  adding  the 
daily  sums  he  had  lost,  subtracting  the  insignificant  gains 
he  had  made,  and  drawing  the  final  amount,  which  left  the 
capital  with  which  he  had  started  far  from  being  so  large 
as  when  he  began  his  operations.  He  consoled  himself, 
however,  by  the  reflection  that  the  time  was  fast  approach- 
ing, when  the  Great  Friskey  Combination  w^as  not  only  to 
restore  the  former  plumpness  of  his  purse,  and  to  defray 
at  once  the  very  large  expenses  of  his  costly  establishment 
up  town ;  but  also  to  show  directly  afterward  an  astound- 
ing increase  of  wealth,  casting  far  into  the  shade  the  insig- 
nificant results  of  mere  commercial  enterprises. 

We  have  just  seen  that  young  Mr.  Kirkbride  had  pro- 
mised to  the  aforesaid  comhination  a  substantial  help  by 
discovering  some  of  the  cards,  at  least,  of  their  adversaries. 
Mr.  Friskey  and  his  associates  attached  great  importance 
to  this  promise.  They  had  not  exacted  from  Mr.  Frederick 
the  surrendering  to  them  of  any  part  of  his  capital,  which 
was  all  left  him  as  a  basis  for  his  immense  future  profits. 
They  had  not  contributed  themselves  any  capital  at  all,  but 
merely  profited  by  the  immense  credit  of  the  corporations 
which  they  ruled.  But  if  they  left  thus  the  young  gentle- 
man free  to  make  as  much  of  his  money  as  he  could,  they 
relied  on  his  assistance  for  information.  We  know  that 
this  peculiarity  of  the  contract  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Frede- 
rick was  to  be  executed  by  his  ''  confidential  agent."  The 
reader  remembers  that  when  the  first  list  of  half  a  dozen 
names  was  handed  over  to  Mr.  John,  he  smiled  on  reading 
two  or  three  of  them,  and  showed  directly  a  great  willing- 
ness to  go  through  the  desired  inquiries.  The  first  thing 
that  must  interest  us  is  with  respect  to  the  meaning  of  that 
smile.  This  was  but  the  natural  result  of  the  surprising 
fact  to  him,  at  least,  that  those  two  or  three  names  were 
those  of  personal  friends.  By  the  words  ''  personal  friends," 
we  mean  that  Mr.  John  had  had  dealings  with  them  in 
money  matters  ;  for  he  was  himself  a  ''  capitalist "  to  a  cer- 


272  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

tain  extent.  As  early  as  the  time  when  he  was  footman  to 
Mr.  Ralph  Kirkbride,  we  have  seen  that  he  owned  real 
estate  to  the  amount  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  ;  so  that 
he  could  become  security  for  the  bail  of  ''Bully"  George. 
During  the  entire  month  that  he  frequented  the  stock  ex- 
change to  "spy"  on  Mr.  O'Tee,  he  occasionally  ventured 
to  gamble  on  a  limited  scale  in  some  favorite  stocks,  al- 
though his  young  "employer"  had  warned  him  that  he 
must  never  call  on  him  as  a  security  in  his  losses.  Mr. 
John  had,  therefore,  become  acquainted  with  several  specu- 
lators in  that  way  of  making  money ;  and  we  may  be  sure 
that  these  men  were  not  mostly  doing  a  regular  and  lawful 
business  of  brokerage,  but  were  rather  hovering  on  the  dim 
and  vague  line  which,  in  those  fantastic  regions,  divides 
the  lawful  from  the  unlawful,  Mr.  John  smiled,  therefore, 
when  he  read  those  names,  because  a  sudden  bright  thought 
struck  his  mind  that  he  could  use  the  gamblers  of  both 
sides  for  his  own  personal  advantage,  and  derive  profit  from 
the  distinguished  man  whose  "confidential  agent"  he  was, 
as  well  as  from  the  opposite  "combination."  On  visiting 
two  of  them  particularly,  he  was  gradually  drawn  to  un- 
bosom himself  entirely,  and  openly  declare  the  mission  he 
had  been  sent  on.  This  was  an  immense  advantage  con- 
ferred on  those  two  gentlemen,  and  Mr.  John  had  before- 
hand bargained  to  be  handsomely  paid  for  the  benefit  ac- 
cruing to  them.  On  the  second  list  handed  him  by  young 
Mr.  Kirkbride,  he  found  two  other  "gentlemen"  likewise 
of  his  acquaintance,  and  made  with  them  equally  advan- 
tageous "contracts."  What  he  brought  them  was  not  so 
much  a  detail  of  the  plans  of  the  Friskey  combination,  of 
which  his  "  employer  "  had  not  told  him  a  single  word,  as 
the  not  despicable  opportunity  of  throwing  dust  into  the 
eyes  of  their  adversaries,  the  Friskey  men — by  making  them 
believe  wrong  information,  and  showing  in  appearance  cards 
the  very  reverse  of  those  they  had  in  hand.  Thus  Mr. 
John  was  in  anticipation  filling  his  purse  from  both  sides  ; 
and  indulging  in  the  very  pleasant  occupation  of  playing 
false  to  his  "  master,"  always  supposed  to  be  an  "  enemy  ; " 


D0ING8  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS    273 

as  we  know  that  latterly  the  relations  between  the  two  wor- 
thy companions  had  not  been  of  the  most  amicable  kind. 
The  recent  grievances  of  the  "confidential  agent"  were 
fearfully  increased  by  the  too  apparent  wealth  of  the  yoang 
gambler.  To  see  him  with  such  immense  means  of  gratifica- 
tion either  for  gambling  purposes  or  for  sensual  indulgence  ; 
to  know  what  sums  he  could  venture  on  a  single  throw  at 
the  exchange,  and  what  life  he  led  during  the  long  winter 
nights  in  his  Aladdin's  palace,  was  a  double  dagger  for  the 
envious  heart  of  the  valet ;  and  he  would  have  willingly, 
without  any  personal  benefit,  destroyed  an  apparent  pros- 
perity which  he  fully  witnessed  in  his  master,  without,  we 
may  say,  being  able  to  share  in  it  in  the  least.  Envy  is  a 
terrible  passion,  natural  to  all  valets,  and  to  such  as  Mr. 
John  in  particular. 

Meanwhile,  he  frequently  called  on  Mr.  Frederick  to  re- 
port progress,  and  as  he  had  a  very  glib  tongue,  he  inter- 
ested deeply  and  amused  hugely  the  young  gentleman,  by 
the  long  tales  he  either  wove  in  v/hole  cloth,  or  merely  em- 
broidered at  pleasure,  on  a  real  bottom.  The  young  gen- 
tleman, meanwhile,  took  notes,  relying  altogether  on  the 
information  of  his  confidential  agent,  and  was  from  it  pre- 
paring a  memoir  which  was  to  be,  in  his  opinion,  of  im- 
mense service  to  the  Great  Friskey  Combination  Cause. 

The  reader  must  not,  however,  imagine  that  the  whole 
time  of  Mr.  John  was  employed  in  these  very  interesting 
operations.  He  had  begun  again  to  visit  Greene  Street, 
and  this  refined  locality  must  open  to  our  view  a  new  pros- 
pect of  wonders.  Young  Talty,  in  his  previous  investiga- 
tions, had  been  so  totally  taken  up  by  the  single  a-parte  of 
John  and  Schwitz,  that  he  knew  really  nothing  of  the  mys- 
teries of  this  public  house.  In  his  subsequent  visits  to  it, 
he  became  suddenly  aware  that  all  those  who  daily  congre- 
gated around  its  tables,  were  not  attracted  solely  by  the 
pleasure  of  drinking,  smoking,  or  reading  the  papers,  but 
that  each  small  group  of  two  or  three  persons  formed  a 
dramatic  nucleus^  involving  sometimes  all  the  intricacies 
18 


274  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE, 

of  a  high-wrought  comedy,  or  the  deeply-moving  changes 
of  an  obscure  and  unknown  tragedy.  To  speak  in  more 
intelligible  terms,  the  place  was  a  resort  of  burglars,  ad- 
venturers, relatively-innocent  pickpockets,  or  deep-dyed 
plotters  against  the  fortunes,  and  sometimes  the  lives  of 
their  fellow  men.  The  lirst  inkling  Mr.  Talty  got  of  it  sent 
a  thrill  of  awe  through  his  nerves ;  but  he  tried  to  keep 
them  quiet  when  he  saw  that  Mr.  John  was  a  general  favor- 
ite in  this  place  ;  sure  as  he  was  to  find  him  in  nice  associa- 
tions. But  he  saw  directly  he  could  scarcely  ever  hope  of 
unraveling  any  of  these  mysteries  of  iniquity,  were  he  to 
remain  alone,  sipping  his  glass  or  reading  the  papers.  His 
eyes  rested  several  times  on  a  man,  a  total  stranger  to  him, 
but  who  manifested  evident  signs  of  his  origin  ;  he  was,  in 
fact,  an  unworthy  Irishman.  Talty  thought  of  becoming- 
acquainted  with  him,  and  soon  found  means  to  communi- 
cate with  him  privately.  The  case  was  as  he  thought : 
poverty  had  brought  him  into  crime  ;  but  his  soul  was  not 
yet  seared  to  every  feeling  of  remorse.  Finally,  by  means 
which  we  will  not  attempt  to  describe,  Talty  learned  from 
him  that  two  of  those  gangs  of  burglars  were  going  shortly 
to  operate  on  two  places  already  well  known  to  us  :  one  was 
the  counting-room  of  T.  Bland  &  Co.,  in  Beaver  Street ;  the 
other,  the  former  Kirkbride  mansion  on  Madison  Avenue. 
A  rich  family  had  rented  it  from  the  lady  who  owned  it, 
and  had  been  already  living  there  for  several  months.  Both 
establishments  were,  in  all  their  interior  details,  perfectly 
well  known  to  Mr.  John  ;  and  he  was  surely  at  the  head  of 
the  intended  projects.  So  Mr.  Talty  suspected ;  although 
his  new  friend  had  not  the  least  idea  of  it,  so  careful  was 
Mr.  John  of  never  taking,  in  all  his  plots,  a  perilous  posi- 
tion. The  double  secret  was  instantly  revealed  to  Mr.  Cor- 
nelius O' Byrne,  who  directly  took  measures  to  defeat  both 
plans,  and,  if  possible,  capture  the  guilty  ]3lotters ;  happy 
would  he  be  if  the  cunning  originator  of  them  could  be  dis- 
covered. 

Few  are  aware  of  the  number  and  audacity  of  burglars 
in  the  United  States.     The  ''trade"  must  have  enriched  a 


DOINGS  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS.    275 

great  many  scoundrels,  since  despite  the  numerous  dangers 
of  the  ""profession,"  so  many  bold  adventurers  have  rushed 
and  are  still  rushing  into  those  nightly  expeditions.  Seve- 
ral have  been  captured,  no  doubt ;  and  Sing  Sing,  and  Au- 
burn, and  Denamara,  and  other  strong  castles  keep  within 
their  walls  interesting  specimens  of  the  most  proficient  in 
this  profitable  business.  Yet  how  many  have  always  been, 
and  are  yet  at  large,  intent  on  increasing  the  circle  of  their 
operations ;  some  with  the  object  of  entering  afterward 
into  "reputable"  pursuits  ;  others,  with  the  sole  motive  of 
living  "luxuriously"  on  others'  gains  !  Mr.  John  had  not 
yet  become  a  ' '  millionaire ' '  by  the  numerous  expeditions  he 
had  for  some  time  directed;  yet  his  "share"  had  brought 
him  a  handsome  competence  from  the  twenty-thousand-dol- 
lar house  which,  when  a  footman,  he  had  purchased,  to  the 
every-day  increasing  small  sums  he  was  then  accumulating 
in  the  bank,  with  the  intention  of  operating  on  a  still  more 
extensive  scale,  when  the  great  day  of  battle  between  the 
bulls  and  the  bears  of  Wall  Street  would  take  place.  For, 
acting  as  the  "confidential  agent"  of  Mr.  Frederick,  he  had 
his  own  organ  to  grind,  and  he  expected  to  draw  from  its 
pipes  lively  tunes,  when  it  would  be  time  to  come  to  real 
music. 

He  did  not  derive,  however,  any  percentage  from  the 
two  well -planned  operations  of  Beaver  Street  and  Madison 
Avenue ;  there  is  no  need  of  entering  into  the  details  of 
attack  and  defense,  on  the  night  when  both  occurrences 
took  place.  Mr.  O' Byrne  had  wisely  arranged  his  own 
plans ;  the  burglars  wera  surprised,  and  saw  themselves 
blown  up  by  their  own  petards  when  they  arrived  on  the 
field  ;  the  clubs  of  policemen  were  astir  ;  they  had,  in  both 
places,  to  take  to  their  heels  ;  three  of  the  less  nimble,  were 
captured  between  the  two  places  ;  but  Mr.  John  was  not  of 
them  ;  and  in  the  summary  trial  which  soon  after  took  place 
and  consigned  the  three  obscure  individuals  to  a  somewhat 
long  period  of  seclusion,  nothing  was  elicited  which  could 
bring  him  into  the  clutches  of  the  law.  Every  one,  how- 
ever, admitted  that  these  operations,  though  nipped  in  the 


276  LOTUS  A  KIREBRIDE. 

bud,  indicated  a  perfect  knowledge  of  both  localities  ;  and 
the  best  means  of  explaining  all  the  circumstances  was  to 
suppose  that  a  former  servant  of  Mr.  R.  Kirkbride  was  at 
the  bottom  of  both  plots.  Thus  suspicion,  and  merely  sus- 
picion, rested  on  our  interesting  villain,  who,  henceforth, 
became  a  worthy  subject  of  observation  for  the  police  of  ^ew 
York.  Something,  after  all,  may  come  out  of  this  partial 
discovery. 

Whilst  the  ''confidential  agent"  was  thus  dabbling  in 
crime  severely  punished  by  society  whenever  it  is  found 
out,  the  "employer"  was  deeply  engaged  in  a  conspu^acy 
of  another  sort.  It  was  nothing  else  than  the  project  of  sub- 
verting all  the  existing  commercial  and  even  social  relations 
in  a  great  part  of  the  country,  by  fundamentally  disturbing 
the  currency,  which  regulates  among  men  the  chief  opera- 
tions of  commerce,  and,  we  may  say,  the  hierarchical  ranks 
of  society,  at  least  in  the  United  States.  It  was  the  now 
openly  avowed  design,  formed  by  a  few  conspirators,  of 
impoverishing  suddenly  an  immense  number  of  influential 
families,  in  order  to  throw  millions  upon  millions  into  the 
coffers  of  a  few  lucky  operators.  The  events  resulting  in 
Black  Friday^  as  it  was  called,  proved  it  abundantly  ;  and 
the  recent  history  of  the  country,  in  the  few  years  just 
elapsed,  confirmed  fearfully  a  truth  which  all  by  this  time 
must  acknowledge.  AVhat  we  have  named  the  "Great 
Friskey  Combination,"  had  no  other  object. 

Ahern,  who  previously,  as  we  saw,  was  intrusted  by  Mr. 
Cornelius  O' Byrne  with  the  duty  of  following  the  steps 
of  Mr.  Frederick,  soon  became  aware  that  a  dangerous  plot 
was  on  foot,  and  he  communicated  to  the  young  detective 
many  details  which  proved  it  clearly  enough.  There  were 
men,  and  many  of  them  spending  their  lives  in  the  Great 
Central  Hotel  or  around  it,  who  were  concocting  plans  far 
worse  than  open  burglaries  ;  since  besides  impoverishing  a 
great  number  for  the  profit  of  a  few  keen  plotters,  they  cor- 
rupted the  whole  nation  by  inoculating  it  with  a  fearful 
malady,  which  could  be  called  mania  ah  auro,  far  worse 


DOmOS  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS.    277 

tlian  tlie  celebrated  mania  a  potu.  Mr.  C.  0' Byrne,  tlie 
very  evening  of  the  day  lie  received  this  information,  begged 
of  the  district  attorney  to  grant  him  a  private  interview, 
instead  of  giving  him  his  usual  lesson  on  the  JS'ew  York 
Code  and  Statutes.  They  both  entered  a  very  small  room 
back  of  the  general  office,  and  the  young  Irishman  detailed 
the  various  indications  of  a  near  financial  explosion,  which 
might  involve  the  whole  country  in  distress,  if  not  in  ruin. 

"The  affair,  itself,"  replied  the  legal  officer,  "is  per- 
fectly well  kno^^Ti  in  this  city,  and  many  shrewd  merchants 
and  speculators  are  already  trimming  their  sails  against  the 
impending  storm.  But  the  personal  details  you  convey  me 
are  not  generally  so  well  known.  Your  view  of  the  matter 
is  quite  correct,  and  the  men  who  bring  on,  by  their  plots, 
such  extensive  and  destructive  calamities^  are  greater  crimi- 
nals than  pickpockets,  and  even  than  burglars  operating 
on  the  largest  scale ;  but  our  laws,  unfortunately,  are  not 
framed  to  meet  such  exigencies,  and  society  is  left,  without 
remedy,  to  the  tender  mercies  of  sharpers.-' 

"But  why  is  it,"  inquired  the  young  Irishman,  "  that  in 
this  country,  where  there  is  such  a  great  need  of  it,  preven- 
tive laws  have  not  yet  been  framed  to  protect  society  ?  It 
seems  to  me  that  legislators  in  the  United  States  are  keen 
enough  to  see  the  importance  of  severe  measures  in  that 
regard." 

"There  are,  my  dear  friend,"  replied  the  gentleman, 
"great  difficulties  in  the  way,  which  everyone  feels,  and 
is  afraid  of  removing,  although  all  see  clearly  that  they 
ought  to  be  removed,  previous  to  any  legal  enactments  be- 
ing passed  on  the  subject.  The  great  one,  in  my  opinion,  is 
the  very  small  quantity  of  coin,  which  necessitates  an  im- 
mense amount  of  paper  to  satisfy  the  financial  needs  of  the 
country,  and  paper  necessarily  encourages  wild  specula- 
tion. The  almost  only  thing  a  legislator  can  do,  is  to  make 
it  penal  to  engage  in  stock  jobbing,  except  for  bona  fide 
transactions,  and  with  the  stocks  openly  on  hand.  As  it  is, 
any  one  can  gamble  in  such  paper  without  having  in  his 
possession  a  single  share,  provided  he  pays  his  reputed  loss 


278  LOUISA  KIBEBBIDE. 

when  he  loses  ;  and  certainly,  at  least,  such  a  check  as  the 
one  just  mentioned,  ought  to  be  imposed  on  all  before  they 
set  their  foot  inside  of  the  exchange.  Such  a  measure,  how- 
ever, would  not,  in  my  opinion,  cure  entirely  the  evil ;  the 
real  remedy  is  to  deal  much  more  in  specie  than  we  do,  and 
for  this  we  must  have  more  coin.  The  Spaniards  formerl}^ 
went  too  far  in  wishing  to  keep  for  themselves  alone  the 
produce  of  their  mines  in  Peru  ;  we  go  to  the  other  extreme 
in  letting  all  the  gold  of  the  West  go  to  Europe,  without 
keeping  at  least  our  share  of  it.  France  has  already  re- 
cuperated materially  from  her  losses  and  defeats,  on  ac- 
count of  her  enormous  amount  of  the  precious  metals.  We 
are  yet  weak  from  our  civil  war,  because  we  attempt  to  live 
on  paper." 

"I  have  read  lately,"  Con  remarked,  ''that  it  is  against 
sound  financiering  to  require  a  larger  amount  of  the  precious 
metals  than  operators  absolutely  need  in  this  country." 

"So  it  is  said,"  replied  the  district  attorney,  ''yet  it  is 
an  undoubted  fact  that  Europeans  would  shudder  to  enter 
into  such  vast  operations  as  are  carried  on  in  this  country  on 
so  slender  a  basis  of  hard  coin.  All  European  nations  have 
an  immensely  greater  amount  of  it  than  we  have,  and  I  at- 
tribute to  this  fact  their  comparative  freedom  from  financial 
convulsions.  They  all  draw  largely,  chiefly  France,  on  the 
products  of  the  mines  of  California,  Australia,  and  South 
Africa,  discovered  so  opportunely  in  these  latter  times. 
The  United  States  alone  appear  not  to  care  much  for  this 
commodity.  They  allow  even  the  produce  of  their  o^^^l 
rich  mines  in  the  West  to  be  carried  to  England  or  other 
countries,  and  they  keep  but  a  small  amount  of  it,  just  to 
say  that  they  too  have  coin.  Nothing,  in  my  opinion,  con- 
tributes so  much  to  increase  the  fever  of  gambling  as  the 
facility  of  transacting  the  largest  operations  without  seeing 
coin  or  handling  it.     This,  at  least,  is  what  I  firmly  believe." 

"But,"  observed  our  young  friend,  "could  not  the  oper- 
ators in  paper  be  required  to  follow  the  laws  of  morality  ? " 

"No  human  legislator,  my  friend,"  answered  the  gentle- 
man, "can  propose  to  himself  to  reform  all  the  abuses  op- 


DOINGS  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCE  GAMBLERS,    279 

posed  to  the  law  of  God,  and  to  uphold  strictly  all  the  laws 
of  divine  morality.  A  superhuman  lawgiver  alone  could 
undertake  such  a  task.  Often  what  is  most  hurtful  to  so- 
ciety, ought  to  be  left  alone,  because  the  cure  of  the  evil  is 
above  the  ability  of  mere  man.  Conscience  is  beyond  the 
reach  of  all  temporal  rulers,  and  the  pretension  of  using 
purely  human  power  for  enforcing  the  divine  law  unless  it 
is  based  on  a  spiritual  authority,  which  we  have  not,  would 
open  the  door  to  the  most  frightful  despotism  yet  estab- 
lished among  men.  Hence  only  one  statesman  ever  pro- 
posed, in  this  country,  the  upholding  of  a  'higher  law,' 
and  we  all  know  what  was  the  consequence  of  it :  a  fearful 
civil  war  of  five  years,  ending  in  the  almost  complete  ruin 
of  the  South,  with  no  higher  morality  in  the  North,  nay, 
quite  the  reverse.  And  if  a  '  great  iniquity '  was  redressed, 
as  I  firmly  believe  it  was,  the  race  that  profited  by  it  was 
scarcely  benefited  in  the  end,  as  if  God  intended  to  im- 
press on  the  mind  of  all  men  to  leave  to  himself  the  vindica- 
tion of  the  'higher  law.'  Your  church,  friend  O' Byrne, 
was  ever  the  only  power  on  earth  that  claimed  openly  such 
a  privilege,  but  at  the  same  time,  she  claimed  infallibility, 
which  no  human  lawgiver  can  do.  I  admire  the  Catholic 
Church  for  it,  as  after  all,  she  referred  everything  to  God 
himself  ;  but  our  Washington  legislators  could  never  think 
of  doing  the  same  ;  and  the  best  they  have  to  contrive,  is  to 
give  us  as  sound  a  code  of  'lower  law,'  as  they  can  give. 

"Therefore,  my  friend,  the  state  cannot  be  called  upon 
to  stop  in  their  career  all  these  mad  consj^irators  against 
the  peace  and  good  order  of  society.  Wise  men  have  only 
to  wait  for  events  and  repair  the  injury  as  soon  as  it  is  in- 
flicted, sure,  meanwhile  that  the  men  guilty  of  such  crimi- 
nal conduct  A\dll  be  the  first  to  suffer  by  it,  and  will  become 
afterward  examples  of  the  unerring  justice  of  heaven  even 
in  the  affairs  of  the  present  life.  Your  friend,  however, 
will  do  well  to  continue  his  observations  ;  because  those 
infatuated  operators  on  'change  may  break  loose  from  every 
restraint,  and  go  openly  in  the  end  against  the  statutes  of 
the  state  as  well  as  against  the  laws  of  God." 


280  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

Thus  Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne  was  receiving  solid  lessons 
on  law  and  political  morality ;  and  all  Americans  were  not  at 
the  time,  and  are  not  yet,  thank  God,  imbued  with  princi- 
ples destructive  of  order  and  justice.  We  only  hope  that 
the  same  school  of  jurisconsults  may  long  continue  to  exist 
in  the  country. 

But  in  spite  of  the  warning  of  good  men,  of  the  glaring 
uncertainty  of  all  wild  chances,  of  the  clear  consequences  to 
society  at  large  of  such  a  degrading  passion,  the  mania  for 
making  a  fortune  in  a  week  was  raging  worse  than  ever. 
Every  day  the  stock  exchange  was  becoming  more  offen- 
sively a  picture  of  pandemonium.  Men,  habitually  shrewd 
and  cool,  appeared,  during  '^  business  hours,"  raving  ma- 
niacs ;  the  passion  of  gold-hunting  had,  perhaps,  never  be- 
fore appeared  in  a  more  disgusting  form. 

In  the  midst  of  that  crazy  crowd  Mr.  Frederick  stood  up 
every  day,  wilder  than  any  man  ;  and  at  every  bid  sure 
that  this  time  he  was  making  a  lucky  throw,  to  be  soon 
sadly  disappointed,  at  least  in  the  great  majority  of  cases. 
The  moment  of  acting  determined  upon  by  the  great  Fris- 
key  combination,  was,  unfortunately  for  him — so  he  thought 
— unaccountably  delayed  again  and  again.  At  last,  how- 
ever, he  was  called  secretly  for  his  report  on  those  men  who 
were  to  be  the  chief  object  of  attack  when  the  great  day 
should  arrive.  He  went  with  the  notes  taken  by  himself 
on  the  information  furnished  by  his  confidential  agent. 
The  gentlemen  who  formed  the  '^committee  of  arrange- 
ments"— if  we  may  call  it  so — were  really  amazed  by  the 
statements  made  by  Mr.  Kirkbride,  which  conflicted  with 
all  the  information  they  had  received  from  other  quarters. 
They  asked  of  the  young  gentleman  if  he  was  sure  of  his 
agent.  He  replied  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  find  a 
better  one.  His  man  was  intelligent,  persuasive,  shrewd, 
and  active.  Interrogated  as  to  whether  his  integrity  could 
be  trusted,  he  replied  that  his  own  personal  interest  was 
certainly  to  tell  the  truth  and  not  to  deceive  those  who  em- 
ployed him. 

The  result  of  this  first  conference  was  that  a  new  delay 


DOINGS  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS    281 

of  a  few  days  was  determined  upon  to  decide  wliicb.  report 
should  be  accepted  as  trustworthy  ;  and  Mr.  Frederick, 
made  uneasy  by  the  hesitation  of  his  confederates,  called 
John  to  his  room,  where  they  had  first  rather  a  stormy  dis- 
cussion, which  finally  ended  in  the  firm  conviction  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Kirkbride  that  John  had  told  the  truth,  and 
that  to  follow  an  adverse  information  would  end  in  defeat. 
It  would  require  long  details  to  relate  in  extenso  the  skill- 
ful manoeuvring  of  the  '^confidential  agent."  Yet  it  is 
with  regret  that  we  suppress  this  interesting  and  animated 
discussion  between  two  such  blades  in  point  of  cunning  and 
deceit ;  as,  undoubtedly,  Mr.  John  never  perhaps  in  his  life 
displayed  such  splendid  talents  as  he  did  on  that  occasion. 
On  the  appointed  day  Mr.  Kirkbride  met  again  the  gen- 
tlemen who  had  first  received  his  report.  They  were  more 
convinced  than  ever  of  the  incorrectness  of  his  first  state- 
ments, and  of  the  truth  of  their  other  information.  Yet 
Mr.  Frederick  would  not  give  up  the  cause  of  his  valet ;  he 
was  sure  of  what  he  had  affirmed,  and  any  other  policy,  at 
least  with  respect  to  the  adversaries  reported  by  John, 
would  surely  end  in  defeat  and  heavy  loss.  Thus  the 
worthy  confederates  separated. 

When  this  unfortunate  disagreement  was  reported  to  Mr. 
Friskey,  this  young  prime  mover  of  the  whole  plan  became 
a  prey  to  perplexity,  a  state  of  mind  quite  unusual  with 
him.  In  his  opinion,  Mr.  Kirkbride  was  certainly  wrong — 
he  had  too  many  reasons  to  believe  the  counter  reports — 
hence  the  statements  of  the  young  gentleman  were  to  be 
considered  as  perfectly  worthless.  Yet  he  stuck  to  them 
through  sheer  infatuation  for  his  agent ;  and  to  tell  him 
plainly  that  no  reliance  could  be  had  on  his  report,  would 
certainly  offend  him,  which  Mr.  Friskey  himself  would  not 
dare  to  do  to  a  man  enjoying  such  a  "large  capital."  There 
was  something  worse  even  in  the  fact  that  they  did  not 
know  how  far  the  "confidential  agent"  had  spoken  of 
their  own  secrets.  Mr.  Frederick  had  never  said  a  word  of 
the  care  he  had  taken  to  keep  John  in  the  dark  on  the  sub- 


282  LOUISA  EIBKBRIDE. 

ject,  and  to  give  liim  only  orders  about  prying  into  tlie 
secrets  of  others.  They,  on  their  side,  did  not  dare  to  put 
the  question  to  him,  through  fear  of  giving  him  greater  of- 
fense. After  weighing  carefully  the  conflicting  motives  of 
their  future  conduct  on  the  subject,  the  leaders  of  the 
party — since  we  must  use  the  name — agreed  to  appear  ex- 
teriorly not  to  have  lost  confidence  in  Mr.  Kirkbride,  and 
to  let  him  persuade  himself  that  he  still  belonged  to  them 
and  would  profit  by  their  now  well-settled  policy ;  but,  in 
fact,  to  abstain  from  allowing  him  to  peer  into  it,  through 
apprehension  of  being  betrayed,  and  to  throw  him  even  mid 
of  their  track  by  several  hints  and  innuendoes  calculated, 
in  their  opinion,  to  delude  their  adversaries  by  first  deluding 
him.  Thus  Mr.  Kirkbride  was  not,  after  all,  to  share  in 
their  luck,  although  he  was  always  confident  that  he  would. 
He  was,  in  fact,  in  great  danger  of  losing  again  on  both 
sides,  and  this  time  irretrievably.  Such  was  the  result  of 
the  confidence  he  had  reposed  in  his  worthy  tool,  of  whom 
he  had  made,  we  may  say,  an  associate. 

But  was  Mr.  John,  meanwhile,  thriving  on  his  policy  ?  A 
word  on  the  subject  cannot  be  useless.  He  had  certainly 
received  some  bonus  from  those  he  promised  to  help  by  his 
treachery.  But  he  all  along  persuaded  himself  that  he 
would  likewise  enjoy  the  benefit  of  the  great  combination, 
by  becoming  acquainted  with  their  intentions,  and  playing 
his  cards  accordingly.  From  the  start,  he  had  tried  to  pen- 
etrate into  the  secrets  of  the  party  of  his  employer,  but 
had  not  received  the  least  clew  which  could  guide  him.  In 
the  long,  animated  and  decisive  discussion  he  had  with  his 
employer,  although  successful  in  the  end  in  convincing  the 
young  gentleman  of  his  faithfulness,  although  doing  his 
best,  during  the  protracted  conversation,  to  obtain  a  word 
which  could  enlighten  him,  he  had  absolutely  heard  no- 
thing. Mr.  Frederick  had  made  up  his  mind  to  keep  all  the 
advantage  of  what  he  knew  to  himself,  and  not  to  allow  his 
*'  valet "  to  enter  into  partnership  on  any  account.  In  fact, 
the  young  gentleman  knew  very  little,  since  the  real  policy 
of  the  party  had  been  determined  on  only  at  the  last  mo- 


DOINGS  AND  8A  TINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS.    283 

ment,  and  was  purposely  kept  away  from  him.  This  poli- 
cy— the  reader  knows  it  already — was  to  establish  a  tight 
corner  in  gold  ;  we  will  speak  of  it  by-and-by.  Young  Mr. 
Kirkbride  could  not  betray  this  to  his  "confidential  agent," 
since  he  himself  knew  yet  absolutely  nothing  of  it.  Thus 
the  ''valet,"  as  well  as  the  ''master,"  had  to  grope  their 
way  in  the  dark.  This  did  not  please  in  the  least  Mr.  John, 
who  knew  he  knew  nothing ;  but  it  did  not  disturb  the 
equanimity  of  Mr.  Frederick,  who  thought  he  knew  a  great 
deal.  John,  therefore,  remained  a  prey  to  anxiety  and  dis- 
appointment. He  often  went  to  the  stock  exchange,  where 
he  witnessed  the  antics  of  his  employer,  and  was  stung  to 
the  quick  by  the  sharpest  fangs  of  envy,  merely  because  he 
saw  him  jouer  gros  jeu.  He  had  to  content  himself  with 
very  small  ventures  indeed  in  comparison  with  those  of  his 
master  ;  and,  worse  than  all,  his  ventures,  such  as  they  were, 
were  oftener  unsuccessful  than  the  reverse.  The  honus^  in 
fact,  he  had  received  for  his  betrayal,  was  soon  eaten  up  by 
his  losses,  and  several  other  savings,  that  he  had  kept  in 
bank  for  this  solemn  occasion,  were  fast  in  the  act  of  going 
in  the  same  direction.  It  is  not,  therefore,  a  matter  of  sur- 
prise that  he  was  occasionally  gnashing  his  teeth,  and  curs- 
ing inwardly  the  want  of  confidence  of  his  employer,  to 
which,  of  course,  he  attributed  mainly  his  ill-luck. 

About  this  time,  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  received  successively, 
on  the  same  day,  the  visits  of  two  gentlemen  already  known 
to  us,  and  did  not  recover  thereby  much  of  his  former  confi- 
dence, which  in  these  days  was  beginning  to  grow  rather 
weak.  The  first  was  none  else  than  Mr.  W.  Wilson,  the  for- 
mer attorney  of  his  father,  and  the  present  manager  of  the 
afl:*airs  of  his  mother.  This  gentleman  had  really  grown  un- 
easy for  his  client,  in  whom  he  took,  with  justice,  the  liveliest 
interest.  He  had  heard,  from  a  perfectly  reliable  source,  that 
the  young  man  not  only  had  sold  his  whole  interest  in  the 
commercial  establishment  of  Beaver  Street — a  public  fact  well 
known  to  all  New  York — ^but  likewise  that  he  was  fast  sell- 
ing the  very  valuable  real  estate  left  by  his  father ;  and  all 


284  LOUISA  KIBEBRIDE. 

this  to  gamble  in  stocks  and  gold.  Where  would  be,  be- 
fore long,  the  security  for  the  annuity  he  had  to  pay  to  his 
mother  ?  Would  the  lady  be  shortly  reduced  to  the  posses- 
sion and  rental  of  the  house  in  Madison. Avenue?  It  was 
his  duty  to  have  a  conversation  on  the  subject  with  the  son. 
He  went,  therefore,  to  see  him,  after  writing  him  a  note  to 
be  sure  he  would  find  him  ;  and  Mr.  Frederick,  not  yet  re- 
duced to  the  last  shifts  of  insolvent  debtors — fully  per- 
suaded, on  the  contrary,  except  in  some  few  gloomy  mo- 
ments, that  he  was  on  the  eve  of  becoming  one  of  the 
wealthiest  men  of  the  country — did  not  attempt  to  dodge 
the  visit  of  the  gentleman,  and  waited  for  him  in  his  bril- 
liant rooms  of  the  Great  Central  Hotel. 

''I  come,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Wilson,  '^to  have  a  delicate  con- 
versation with  you  ;  and  I  hope  you  will  excuse  me,  as  the 
interest  that  brings  me  to  you  is  precisely  that  of  your  own 
mother.  It  is,  in  fact,  with  regard  to  the  annuity  that  you 
owe  her." 

"What  is  your  pleasure?"  suggested  Mr.  Frederick. 
"Not  only  I  owe  it,  but  I  pay  it." 

This  was  perfectly  true.  Several  terms  of  it  had  already 
followed  each  other,  after  the  first  one  of  which  we  spoke, 
and  the  payments  had  always  been  promptly  met  by  Mr.  D. 
Reckoning,  the  attorney  of  the  young  man. 

"I  do  not  come  to  speak  of  the  past,"  said  Mr.  Wilson ; 
"this  has  been  so  far  perfectly  correct;  but  I  wish  to  see 
the  future  secured  permanently,  so  that  the  lady  may  never 
have,  on  that  score,  the  least  anxiety." 

"Would  you  pretend  to  say  that  my  mother  is  afraid, 
and  that  she  sends  you  on  that  account?"  replied,  gruffly, 
the  young  man ;  "this  I  would  deny,  as  I  know  her  better 
than  you." 

' '  I  have  not  intended  to  give  you  the  least  hint  to  that 
effect,"  retorted  the  astonished  attorney.  "Your  mother 
knows  nothing  of  the  step  I  take ;  it  all  originated  with 
me  ;  but  I  have  to  see  to  it,  as  she  has  confided  all  her  in- 
terests to  my  keeping." 

"And  do  you  not  think  I  take  as  great  an  interest  in 


DOINGS  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS    285 

her  as  you  do  ? "  exclaimed,  with  yet  more  earnestness,  the 
injured  innocent. 

''I  hope  it  is  so,  sir,"  replied  rather  mildly  the  gentle- 
man. "But  law  does  not  take  much  account  of  sentiment. 
All  I  know  is  that  the  will  of  your  father  imposes  upon 
you,  the  inheritor  of  the  bulk  of  his  wealth,  the  duty  of 
paying  a  certain  sum  to  his  wife ;  and,  according  to  this 
will,  that  sum  is  to  be  taken,  before  anything  else,  from  the 
revenue  of  the  property  left  by  him.  But,  from  what  I  hear, 
and  from  what  I  know,  that  property,  solid  and  tangible 
when  he  left  it,  is  becoming  every  day  more  and  more  a 
mere  shadow  in  the  shape  of  stocks,  which  are  to-day  in 
your  desk,  and  may  be  transferred  to-morrow  to  the  desk 
of  another." 

"Do  you  come  to  give  me  a  lesson,  sir?"  said  here,  ab- 
ruptly, the  young  man.  ' '  If  you  bring  with  you  the  threat 
of  law,  accomplish  your  threat  and  sue  me.  I  do  not  see, 
indeed,  for  what  motive,  and  with  what  prospect ;  but  as  I 
have  no  time  to  spare  for  such  an  absurd  discussion,  you 
will  please  allow  me  to  dress  for  an  important  call  I  have  to 
make." 

Mr.  Wilson,  of  course,  withdrew  instantly.  All  that  re- 
mained for  him  to  do,  was  directly  to  have  a  conversation 
on  the  subject  with  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  without  whose  consent 
he  could  not  undertake  to  call  the  young  man  before  the 
surrogate.  He  did  so ;  although  suspecting  beforehand 
that  the  lady  would  never  consent  to  such  a  step. 

"My  dear,  sir,"  she  said  in  conclusion,  "if  am  reduced  to 
live  on  my  proi)erty  of  Madison  Avenue,  I  can  manage,  I 
think,  to  obtain  from  it  a  crust  of  bread  and  a  cup  of  water 
for  me  and  those  two  dear  girls,  who,  I  know,  shall  never 
leave  me  ;  I  mean  Julia  and  Rosa  ;  with  them  I  can  be  happy, 
until  they  find  husbands  worthy  of  them.  My  heart  bleeds, 
however,  to  see  poor  Freddy  so  fatally  infatuated.  He  has 
not  come  to  see  me  for  a  long  time  ;  I  must  go,  one  of  these 
days,  to  pay  him  a  visit ;  but  you  may  be  sure  that  I  will 
not  say  a  word  of  the  annuity  ;  it  will  be  only  to  bring  him 
to  his  senses,  before  he  has  completely  ruined  himself." 


286  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

After  the  departure  of  Mr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Kirkbride  did 
not  dress  to  pay  any  call,  important  or  not ;  he  waited  for 
the  visit  of  his  own  attorney,  who  had  A\T.itten  likewise  to 
be  admitted  to  his  presence ;  and  the  interval  of  time  was 
spent  by  the  young  man  in  a  very  restless  manner.  The 
plain  truth  he  had  just  heard  stung  him  to  the  quick ;  he 
had  occasionally  felt  himself  that  he  was  in  great  danger  of 
losing  the  wealth  he  had  inherited  from  his  father ;  but  the 
thing  had  never  presented  itself  to  his  mind  with  the  vivid- 
ness of  the  expressions  used  by  his  first  visitor.  The  idea 
of  his  own  skill  and  shrewdness,  which  was  paramount  in 
his  mind  at  the  beginning  of  his  stock  operations,  was  be- 
ginning to  give  way  to  a  feeling  of  uncertainty  and  doubt. 
The  heavy  losses  he  had  already  met  with  were  rude  facts 
which  he  could  not  drive  away  from  his  memory  ;  and  his 
intellect  was  yet  strong  enough  to  see  that  it  would  not 
take  a  long  time  of  such  an  adverse  fortune  to  reduce  fear- 
fully the  ''large  capital"  on  which  he  had  first  relied  for 
success  in  stock  gambling.  Intent  as  he  was  on  becoming 
suddenly  rich,  he  understood  perfectly  well  that  he  could 
not  obtain  his  object  without  heavy  risks  which  might  leave 
him  suddenly  poor  at  the  end  of  those  great  operations 
which  had  been  for  so  long  a  time  already  the  ardent  aim 
of  all  his  desires.  This  made  him,  therefore,  ''restless," 
perfectly  so.  Was  it  more  prudent  to  abandon  all  his  pro- 
jects, and  turn  merchant  again  ?  For  very  shame  he  dis- 
missed summarily  the  idea  from  his  thoughts.  Would  it 
be  better  to  reduce  himself  to  the  kind  of  real-estate  specu- 
lations in  which  his  father  had  jiretty  well  succeeded  in  the 
long  run  1  Then  he  would  have  to  wait  years  and  years 
before  he  could  enjoy  life,  as  he  understood  it.  He  had 
already  openly  scouted  the  mean  imagination  of  such  a 
dull  kind  of  business  ;  he  could  not  possibly  reconcile  him- 
self to  the  idea  of  coming  back  to  it  after  such  a  brilliant 
opening  of  a  golden  career.  After  all,  what  he  had  done  was 
mere  skirmishing  ;  and  he  was  alone  at  it.  When  the  real 
fray  would  begin  it  would  be  a  very  different  affair  ;  he 
would  belong  to  a  powerful  organization  bent  on  carrying 


DOINGS  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS.    287 

eTerything  by  force,  and  sure  of  success.  The  only  policy 
worthy  of  him  was  to  go  on ;  and  should  he  fail,  there 
would  be  an  end  of  it ;  he  would  not  have  to  plod  inglori- 
ously  in  the  obscure  and  tiresome  paths  of  ordinary  human 
life  for  which  he  had  never  had  the  least  taste,  and  which 
he  could  not  be  brought  to  accept  willingly. 

Such  was  the  run  of  his  thoughts  when  Mr.  Dio  Reckon- 
ing was  announced  and  introduced  into  his  apartments.  So 
far  only  a  word  has  been  said  of  this  gentleman,  who,  how- 
ever, represents  a  large  class  of  men  in  the  iS'ew  World. 
The  whole  extent  of  his  mental,  and,  we  may  say,  moral 
idiosyncrasy  was  limited  Tvithin  a  circle  well  defined  and 
perfectly  intelligible  to  the  senses  :  money  was  the  sole  key 
to  that  interior  kingdom  of  Mr.  D.  Reckoning.  "What  will 
it  bring  to  my  purse  \ ' '  was  probably  a  question  the  gentle- 
man asked  of  himself  fifty  times  a  day.  He  adored  wealth 
and  worshiped  dollars.  The  future  for  him  was  not  the 
eternal  hereafter  of  the  Christian,  nor  the  hazy  spiritual 
existence  of  the  Platonist  philosopher :  it  was  merely  the 
time  when  Mr.  Reckoning  would  be  a  rich  man.  Yet  the  gen- 
tleman was  a  moral  man ;  he  had  a  reputation  of  integrity  ; 
he  could  boast,  like  the  sprightly  Frenchman,  devoid  of  all 
religious  feeling,  that  he  never  in  his  life  had  been  guilty 
of  having  tue  ni  7)ole.  With  respect  to  those  who  intrusted 
their  interests  to  his  hands,  and  made  him  their  attorney, 
he  rendered  them  full  justice,  after  having  first  consulted 
his  own  advantage.  The  day  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  placed  in 
his  hands  the  care  of  his  law  business  and  the  material 
agency  of  his  real  estate,  had  been  one  of  the  proudest  of 
his  life.  The  wealth  of  the  young  gentleman,  which  would 
probably  continue  to  increase,  as  it  had  constantly  during 
his  father's  life,  promised  him  large  and  numerous  fees  and 
percentages.  The  "hen  with  the  golden  eggs"  had  fallen 
to  his  lot ;  he  had  only  to  improve  well  his  opportunity, 
and  he  would  become  rich  himself.  The  beginning  of  his 
business  in  this  line  had  been  extremely  prosperous  ;  numer- 
ous sales  of  property  had  brought  to  his  purse  rich  dues 
derived  from  his  agency.     But  in  the  midst  of  this  prospe- 


288  LOXTISA  KIREBJRLDE. 

rity  lie  saw  with  dismay  that  there  would  soon  be  an  end  of 
it.  Mr.  Kirkbride  always  sold,  and  never  bought.  It  was 
not  what  he  had  first  fondly  imagined  ;  he  thought  that  it 
would  be  like  an  endless  chain,  with  a  beginning,  indeed, 
but  no  termination  ;  and  strange  to  say,  the  termination  of 
his  hopes  was  already  visible  enough  at  no  great  distance. 
For  this  reason  he  trembled  for  himself,  and  on  this  account 
he  trembled  for  his  rich  client.  What  was  the  young  gen- 
tleman about?  Evidently  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
invest  all  his  real  estate  in  stocks,  in  order  to  gamble  on  a 
large  scale.  It  was  proper  to  open  his  eyes  and  show  him 
he  was  running  rapidly  on  to  his  ruin. 

When  the  two  gentlemen  were  seated,  Mr.  Dio  Reckon- 
ing took  from  his  pocket  a  pretty  large  number  of  papers, 
having  reference  to  some  law  transactions,  and  several 
heavy  transfers  of  property  just  effected.  Thus  he  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Kirkbride  some  heavy  checks  and  other 
tokens  of  wealth,  which  the  young  man  received  eagerly, 
and  transferred  to  his  private  safe.  Then  the  legal  adviser 
added,  handing  to  his  employer  a  last  paper  written  by 
himself:  "I  have  taken  the  liberty,  sir,  to  make  a  state- 
ment of  all  the  transactions  passed  under  your  orders,  since 
I  have  had  the  honor  of  taking  charge  of  your  affairs.  You 
will  find  here  the  complete  list  of  all  the  parcels  of  real 
estate  you  were  possessed  of  when  I  became  your  agent, 
the  precise  epoch  at  which  many  of  them  were  sold,  with 
the  price  they  brought,  and  the  list  of  those  which  yet 
remain  to  you,  with  their  estimated  value." 

"Would  you  be  kind  enough,"  inquired  Mr.  Kirkbride, 
"to  tell  me  with  what  intention  you  took  that  trouble,  and 
what  you  want  me  to  do  with  this  paper  ? " 

"I  thought,  sir,"  he  replied,  "that,  in  the  midst  of  the 
many  things  which  absorb  your  mind,  you  may  be  drawn 
away  from  the  consideration  of  such  an  important  affair 
as  your  actual  real  estate.  It  is  rapidly  diminishing,  as 
you  may  perceive  by  the  help  of  this  short  expose,  and 
it  is  my  duty  to  call  your  attention  to  it,  that  you  may 
not  suddenly  express  great  surprise  at  finding  that  it  has 


DOINGS  AND  SAYINGS  OF  TWO  STOCK  GAMBLERS.    289 

finally  been  entirely  absorbed,  and  been  replaced  merely  by 
paper." 

^'I  thank  you,  sir,  for  yonr  foresight,"  said  with  a  smile 
the  yonng  gentleman,  ''but  it  was  perfectly  useless,  as  I 
know  by  heart  what  you  have  taken  the  trouble  of  writing. 
I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  state  of  my  affairs ;  and  I  will 
never  express  any  surprise  at  finding  all  my  real  estate 
gone,  since  it  was  precisely  my  intention  to  order  you,  at 
this  meeting,  to  finish  with  it,  and  dispose,  during  the 
course  of  this  week,  of  whatever  may  remain  to  me  in  that 
shape." 

The  worthy  attorney  was  struck  dumb  by  such  positive 
language  ;  but  after  a  moment  of  silence,  his  self-interest 
prompted  him  to  say  some  words  of  remonstrance  against 
such  reckless  behavior.  "Believe  me,  sk,"  he  said,  ''it is 
only  the  interest  I  take  in  you  which  emboldens  me  to  ad- 
dress you  a  word  or  two  of  expostulation.  In  my  business 
career  I  have  remarked  that  invariably  those  who  contented 
themselves  with  money  in  hand,  ended  by  losing  their  all, 
and  that,  consequently,  real  estate  is  needed  as  a  founda- 
tion of  wealth.  It  is  to  the  individual  what  coin  is  to  the 
banker  ;  and  it  is,  in  my  opinion,  as  imprudent  for  a  man  to 
deal  all  the  time  in  paper  without  possessing  any  tangible 
property,  as  it  would  be  for  a  banking  company  to  start  in 
business  without  coin  or  something  equivalent  to  it,  sup- 
posing that  the  laws  allowed  it." 

' '  It  may  be  your  opinion,  sir, ' '  replied  the  young  gentle- 
man, ' '  and  you  may  think  you  have  experience  on  your 
side,  but  I  know  facts  which  openly  contradict  your  opinion ; 
and  as  to  your  comparison,  I  admit  no  parity  between  the 
two  cases." 

Mr.  D.  Reckoning  did  not  see  yet  that  it  was  useless  for 
him  to  sx)eak,  and  he  was  bold  enough  to  add  :  "There  may 
have  been  some  adventurers  who,  even  without  any  capital, 
not  to  speak  of  real  estate,  have  built  up  a  kind  of  fortune 
by  wild  speculations  which,  in  the  end,  turned  out  gainful ; 
but  these  men  were  invariably,  at  the  beginning  at  least, 
swindlers ;  and  of  this  kind  of  people  there  can  be,  of 
19 


290  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

course,  no  question  between  us."  Evidently  Mr.  Reckon- 
ing was  becoming  a  *' moral  man,"  and  the  tho light  of  it 
brought  in  the  danger  of  turning  Mr.  Frederick's  stomach, 
who  was  shrewd  enough  to  understand  perfectly  well  the 
man  and  his  motive  in  thus  speaking. 

"  It  may  be  as  you  say,"  the  young  man  added,  to  put  an 
end  to  the  conversation;  "have  the  goodness,  however,  to 
do  as  I  tell  you.  Bring  me  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  infal- 
libly before  next  Thursday." 

Mr.  Dio  Reckoning  had  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  leave 
the  room  ;  and  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  then  really  began  to  dress 
for  his  going  out. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

JUST  THE  DAY   BEFOEE. 

Meanwhile,  the  managers  of  the  Great  Friskey  Combi- 
nation Cause  were  slyly  and  insidiously  working  to  make 
it  as  sure  as  fate,  when  the  hour  would  come  for  unmasking 
suddenly  their  batteries.  The  day  of  action  was  drawing 
near  ;  and  they  labored  with  the  industry  of  beavers  at  the 
near  approach  of  winter.  Those  intrusted  with  the  full  secret 
had  been,  as  we  know,  preparing,  for  a  long  time,  such  per- 
fect measures  of  success  that  they  might  be  absolutely  sure 
of  it  beforehand.  Not  only  there  was  not  to  be  any  fear  of 
failure  for  the  main  purpose  ;  but  they  intended  to  carry  out 
the  whole  plan,  to  its  full  extent  and  in  all  its  details. 

It  was  but  very  lately  that  the  policy  of  ^'  cornering  gold" 
had  been  secretly  announced  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
conspirators — a  more  appropriate  expression  could  not  be 
found.  But  the  leaders  (very  few  in  number,  in  fact  scarcely 
half  a  dozen)  had  almost  from  the  beginning  fully  made  up 
their  minds  to  adopt  this  policy.  They  were  sure  they 
could,  and  that  it  would  directly  make  them  immensely 
rich.  In  no  other  country  in  the  world,  at  least  among 
prosperous  and  civilized  nations,  could  such  a  project  as 
this  be  entertained  by  men,  sane  in  mind.  The  only  case 
history  can  furnish  was  that  of  the  ancient  despots  of  Asia 
or  Africa,  some  of  whom  actually  monopolized  all  the  pre- 
cious metals  of  their  country.  But  as  to  modern  times, 
who  could,  for  instance,  undertake  to  ''corner  gold"  in 
France,  in  England,  in  Germany  ?  A  hundred  or  more  of 
the  richest  capitalists  in  each  of  those  countries  might  try 

291 


292  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

it  in  vain,  even  shonld  you  suppose  that  they  would  com- 
bine together  not  only  all  their  actual  means,  but  likewise 
all  their  credit.  In  the  United  States  alone,  could  a  few 
individuals,  without  personal  wealth,  and  having  only  at 
their  command  the  credit  of  a  few  corporations,  rich  in 
paper,  undertake  to  appropriate  to  themselves  the  totality 
almost  of  coin  in  circulation,  in  order  to  raise  suddenly  its 
nominal  value,  by  creating  a  fearful  void  of  it  in  the  whole 
country,  and  then  to  sell  it  at  once  at  an  immense  pre- 
mium and  profit.  With  such  a  possibility  before  our  eyes, 
we  fear  that  the  opinion  of  the  district  attorney  of  New 
York,  whom  we  heard  lately  speaking  on  the  subject,  is, 
after  all,  too  true  ;  and  that  a  new  proof  of  it,  of  which  he 
had  no  idea  at  the  time,  was  going  to  be  divulged  to  the 
public  for  the  ruin  of  many  and  the  enlightenment  of  those 
who  would  consent  to  open  their  eyes.  That  profound 
thinker  based  his  opinion  simply  on  the  necessity  of  having 
a  strong  metallic  basis  for  large  commercial  and  ind  ustrial 
enterprises,  and  for  avoiding  the  periodical  financial  crises 
which  are  the  material  bane  of  this  country.  He  showed  that 
everywhere,  except  in  the  United  States,  the  precious  metals 
were  eagerly  attracted,  bought  even  at  a  large  premium, 
hoarded  up,  if  you  choose  to  call  it  so,  and  left  apparently 
inoperative  in  the  immense  vaults  of  national  banks,  or  those 
of  rich  capitalists  :  and  he  did  not  share  in  the  infatuation 
of  the  pretended  political  economists  who  appear  horrified 
whenever  a  single  metallic  dollar  remains  out  of  general 
circulation.  Yet  the  deep-reflecting  gentleman  was  never  led 
to  think  that  another  danger,  and  a  still  more  fearful  one, 
would  result  from  the  possibility  of  a  few  unprincipled  ad- 
venturers clubbing  together  to  create  a  total  famine  of  gold, 
and  to  show  at  once  the  naked  poverty  of  a  great  country, 
in  appearance  on  the  top  rung  of  the  ladder  of  wealth.  He 
did  not  think  of  such  a  possibility. 

Mr.  James  Friskey,  and  his  compeers,  had  a  more  prac- 
tical idea  of  the  real  weakness  of  the  financial  system  of 
this  country.  He  knew  that  a  few  men  could  ''rake  up," 
at  a  single  draw,  all  its  scattered  coin ;  as  the  lucky  gam- 


JUST  THE  DAY  BEFORE.  293 

biers  do  the  stakes  heaped  up  on  the  tapis  verd,  around 
which  winners  and  losers  are  seated,  with  flaming  eyes  and 
gaping  mouths.  Yet  Mr.  Friskey  was  not  personally  rich, 
nor  indeed,  any  of  those  associated  with  him,  but  he  was 
backed  by  the  enormous  power  of  an  inflated  corporation — 
the  '* Dunkirk"  Railroad — whose  capital  Avas  at  the  time 
constantly  rising  and  growing  in  bulk.  This  was  chiefly 
owing  to  the  infatuation  of  Englishmen,  who  had  been  led 
to  believe,  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  that  untold  profits 
would  be  infallibly  derived  from  this  second  line  of  com- 
munication between  New  York  and  the  Great  West.  It 
is  always  the  same  gold  mania  which  blinds  even  the 
shrewdest  people,  and  depletes  their  purses  when  they 
think  only  of  filling  them. 

Under  various  pretexts,  therefore,  the  leaders  of  the 
Great  Friskey  Combination  had  been  already,  for  some 
length  of  time,  buying  gold  right  and  left  and  accumu- 
lating it  in  their  capacious  coffers  for  further  use.  The 
premium  had  been  gradually  rising  without  any  apparent 
cause.  The  writers  of  money-articles  in  the  various  daily 
papers  had  wisely  explained  the  whole  subject  a  great  many 
times ;  each  one  of  them  had  his  system  to  prove  conclu- 
sively that  gold  must  rise.  Some  attributed  it  to  permanent 
or  temporary  causes  existing  in  this  country ;  the  wrong 
system  adopted  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  ;  the  play 
of  parties  at  Washington  ;  the  favor  injudiciously  granted 
to  national  banks,  etc.  Others  saw  in  it  the  effect  of  foreign 
influence  ;  it  was,  according  to  a  few,  the  Bank  of  France, 
which  was  strengthening  itself  ;  this  was  denied  in  the  ma- 
jority of  newspapers,  and  the  cause,  if  you  believed  them, 
was  rather  the  Bank  of  England,  which  at  this  time  was 
raising  its  interest  at  the  rate  of  one  per  cent,  a  month. 
Finally  some  anomalous  geniuses  went  as  far  as  China  to 
explain  the  strange  phenomenon ;  it  is  well  known  that  a 
large  quantity  of  hard  silver  is  required  for  the  trade  with 
the  Celestial  Empire,  and  gold,  they  said,  was  required  to 
buy  silver. 

These  were  some  of  the  wild  speculations  afloat,  all  of 


294  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

them  very  wide  of  the  mark.  The  only  sensible  writer  of 
the  period,  was  an  unknown  young  man,  attached  to  an 
unknown  paper  of  Washington  County,  IN".  Y.,  called,  we 
believe,  the  Washington  Bugle,  He  affirmed,  that  hav- 
ing perused  all  his  ''exchanges,"  he  could  not  be  satisfied 
with  their  dogmatic  assertions,  nor  fully  admit  any  of  their 
theories.  He  could  see  only  one  adequate  cause  for  the 
very  strange  fact  of  the  steady  rise  in  gold :  there  were 
persons  hoarding  it  up.  Was  it  for  future  speculations  ? 
for  political  effect  ?  for  mere  gambling  purposes  ?  He  could 
not  say  ;  but  he  strongly  advised  all  his  readers  not  to  part 
with  the  gold  coin  they  had  in  their  possession.  The  re- 
sult was  that  a  dozen  or  so  of  intelligent  farmers  of  Wash- 
ington County  kept  the  fair  eagles,  or  half-eagles,  they  had 
accumulated  since  the  war  began,  and  which  they  were  in- 
clined to  sell  at  the  present  price.  They  continued  to  hold 
them,  securely  tied  up  in  old  stockings,  or  under  double 
key  in  their  clothes-presses.  This  could  not  much  affect 
the  operations  of  the  Great  Friskey  Combination.  Gold 
continued  to  become  every  day  scarcer;  the  New  York 
merchants  who  could  not  carry  on  their  commercial  opera- 
tions without  it,  either  for  duties  to  the  Government,  or  to 
buy  exchange  on  London,  were  beginning  to  bitterly  com- 
plain of  their  situation,  and  to  call  on  the  administration 
at  Washington  to  sell,  at  a  reasonable  price,  a  few  of  the 
many  millions  in  gold  kept  in  their  reserve.  The  secretary 
of  the  treasury  could  not  see  the  necessity  of  it,  and  the 
gold-famine,  instead  of  diminishing,  increased  fearfully. 
Several  bankruptcies  had  already  taken  place,  but  they  were 
considered  of  little  account,  as  none  of  them,  individually, 
yet  reached  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  In 
periods  of  excitement  of  this  intense  nature,  merchants  of 
such  low  degree,  and,  more  still,  those  of  smaller  figures, 
are  contemptuously  passed  over,  and  scarcely  mentioned  in 
the  numerous  periodicals  of  the  day.  People  seem  to  think 
that  this  small  fry  do  not  deserve  the  pity  of  the  pub- 
lic, and  that  they  can,  without  the  least  compunction,  be 
let  fall  into  their  deserved  obscurity.     The  heads  of  such 


JUST  THE  DAY  BEFORE.  295 

insignificant  families  can  as  well  remain  all  their  lives  petty 
clerks  in  establishments  not  their  own,  without  the  possi- 
bility of  ever  rising  above  want,  as  boast  of  an  independent 
position  in  which  they  may  increase  their  capital  and  se- 
cure for  their  children  an  education,  a  competency,  and  a 
respectable  position  in  society.     Such  is  the  world. 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Frederick,  and  his  worthy  '' confidential 
agent,"  continued  to  bid  in  the  stock  exchange,  and  al- 
though the  first,  of  these  two  gentlemen,  in  constant  inter- 
course with  the  leaders  of  the  Friskey  party,  occasionally 
received  from  some  of  them  secret  advice,  which  gave  him 
a  push  on  the  winning  side,  and  revived  his  drooping  hopes ; 
yet  the  grand  total,  even  for  him,  was  a  constantly  descend- 
ing scale  of  his  former  ''large  capital."  As  to  Mr.  John, 
he  was  growing  furious  and  almost  desperate  ;  he  could  not 
say  a  word  to  his  employer  without  grumbling  ;  and  occa- 
sionally intimated  to  him  that  "there  must  be  an  end  of 
this  secrecy  under  which  he  was  kept,  or  he  would  come 
out  not  to  the  advantage  of  a  certain  young  heir,  too  proud 
of  a  position  he  did  not  deserve."  A  crisis  was  evidently 
approaching. 

It  was  in  these  ominous  circumstances  that  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride  thought  of  fulfilling  at  last  the  intention  she  had  ex- 
pressed to  Mr.  Wilson,  of  paying  a  visit  to  her  son.  She 
thought,  first,  of  going  in  her  little  carriage,  with  a  single 
pony,  to  the  great  Central  Hotel,  and  of  falling  suddenly 
on  the  young  man  unprepared  for  the  interview,  and  un- 
aware of  her  purpose.  But  she  soon  dismissed  the  idea ; 
it  would  most  probably  produce  a  bad  effect  on  him  ;  the 
weeds  she  continued  to  wear,  her  humble  equipage,  the 
surroundings  of  the  immense  modern  caravansary,  where 
her  son  lived  in  splendor,  would  not,  in  the  least,  she  rea- 
sonably thought,  render  what  she  had  to  say  effective.  She 
made  up  her  mind  to  send  him  a  note,  such  that  he  would 
surely  come  to  her.  • 

"My  dear  Son,"  she  wrote,  "I  have  not  seen  you  for 
an  age  ;  yet  I  have  a  great  deal  to  say  to  you.     Could  you 


296  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

not  come  to  dine  with  me?  Your  great  objection,  the  last 
time  I  saw  you,  was  my  hour,  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon ; 
I  will  postpone  it  to  five  o'clock.  Can  you  come  to-morrow, 
Tuesday  ?    Please  answer  by  the  bearer. 

^'  Your  loving  mother, 

''L.  KiRKBEIDE." 

This  note  was  carried  on  Monday  evening  by  a  boy  of  the 
neighborhood,  the  son  of  a  widow  whom  the  lady  frequently 
helped.  Mr.  Frederick  was  in  his  room  when  it  came.  He 
was  surprised  on  reading  it.  ''Was  she  going  to  speak  to 
him  of  the  annuity  ?  Had  Wilson  put  it  into  her  head?" 
These  two  questions  were  of  a  nature  to  excite  his  curi- 
osity, and  he  answered  directly  that  ''  he  would  go." 

The  dinner  had  been  prepared  with  some  elegance,  to 
please  the  son,  who  was,  however,  astonished  that  his  mother 
had  only  Rosa  to  help  at  table.  He,  however,  behaved  de- 
cently, but  waited  with  impatience  for  the  end  of  the  meal, 
when  he  would  be  alone  with  her.  That  moment  arrived, 
and  both  of  them  withdrew  to  the  lady's  room. 

"I  have  been  lately  troubled,  my  dear  Freddy,"  she  said, 
"by  the  thought  that  you  are  actually  alone  in  the  world, 
with  nobody  to  advise  you.  It  is  a  sad  position  for  a  young 
man,  chiefly  when  he  has  at  his  command  large  means,  and 
may  fall  into  the  hands  of  sharpers.  On  this  account,  I 
have  called  you  to-day,  to  know  whether,  by  putting  both 
our  heads  together,  yours  and  mine,  we  cannot  see  more 
clearly  into  the  state  of  your  affairs  than  you  can  alone.  A 
woman,  I  admit,  is  generally  considered  incapable  of  at- 
tending to  business,  particularly  business  of  importance ; 
but  a  mother  is  not  what  is  properly  called  a  woman.  The 
interest  she  naturally  takes  in  her  son  prompts  her  to 
greater  exertions,  and  she  may,  through  maternal  love,  find 
the  solution  of  difficulties  which  a  man  would  often  be  un- 
able to  reach." 

The  sftn  was  astonished  to  hear  such  simple  words,  but, 
for  all  that,  so  true  and  telling. 

*'I  am  not,  mother,  entirely  without  advisers,"  he  re- 


JUST  THE  DAY  BEFOBE.  297 

marked,  '^and,  on  the  contrary,  I  rely  on  friends,  without 
whose  help  I  might  experience  real  difficulties.  I  am  confi- 
dent that,  with  their  aid,  everything  will  turn  out  well." 

"I  put  it  to  you,  Freddy,"  interposed  the  mother,  "would 
the  advice  of  your  father,  if  yet  alive,  chime  in  with  that  of 
those  you  call  your  friends  ?  You  knew  well  what  was  the 
firm  conviction  of  Mr.  Kirkbride'with  respect  to  business, 
and  he  tried,  I  know,  to  give  a  proper  direction  to  your 
conduct.  Have  you  sacredly  followed  his  injunctions,  and, 
in  what  you  pursue,  are  you  acting  on  his  wise  sugges- 
tions?" 

The  mother  expected  an  answer,  which  was  not  coming 
from  the  son  ;  she  therefore  added  : 

"  Speak  candidly  to  me,  my  dear  Fred  ;  I  am  your  best 
friend,  and  those  to  whom  you  give  the  name  may  be  false 
to  it,  and  deceive  you." 

'^ Mother,"  he  said,  "I  do  not  think  they  deceive  me,  as 
it  would  not  be  their  interest  to  do  so,  and  I  am  sure  that 
as  they  fare,  so  Tvi.ll  I.  Xo  one  who  knows  them  can  im- 
agine they  are  fated  to  fail." 

"That  is  to  say,"  interposed,  eagerly,  the  lady,  "their 
gambling  cards  are  well  played,  and  will  turn  out  trumps." 

"Who  put  that  in  your  head,  mother?"  hurriedly  re- 
plied the  wretched  young  man  ;  "who  told  you  that  I  have 
become  a  mere  gambler  ? " 

"To  speak  the  truth,"  she  replied,  with  a  most  heavy 
heart,  "  everybody  that  speaks  of  you  calls  you  so  ;  they 
all  say  that  you  are  merely  gambling  in  stocks.  Was  this 
the  advice  of  your  father  ?  and  do  you  call  friends  those 
who  induce  you  to  adopt  such  a  profession?" 

"Mother,"  he  exclaimed,  blushing,  "those  who  speak 
thus  do  not  know  what  they  say.  They  have  no  idea  of 
what  business  is  in  this  country.  The  contemptible  slow 
dealings  of  a  former  age  are,  with  reason,  set  aside  by  the 
living  business  men  of  this  ;  and  the  fools,  who  have  no 
eyes  to  see,  revenge  themselves  by  giving  opprobrious  names 
to  what  is  above  their  ken." 

"I  hope,  son,"  interrupted  the  lady,  with  excited  feel- 


298  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

ings,  ''that,  in  speaking  of  'slow  dealings'  and  of  'fools,' 
your  mind  did  not  revert  to  your  father,  to  whom,  how- 
ever, in  the  meaning  you  attach  to  those  words,  they  fully 
apply.  I  must  tell  you,  sir,  that  you  are  going  to  your 
complete  ruin,  in  pretending  to  have  more  wisdom  than 
those  who  were  your  natural  guides.  My  heart  bleeds  for 
you,  because  I  am  your  mother ;  but  my  heart  suffers  still 
more,  perhaps,  for  the  reputation  of  your  father,  whom 
you  may  disgrace.  If  the  house  he  placed  his  pride  in 
building  up,  totters  to  its  ruin,  and  falls,  the  name  of  the 
Kirkbrides  shall  be  dishonored,  and  the  family  ended  with 
discredit." 

Wretched  Frederick  felt  the  force  of  these  eloquent 
words,  and  as,  in  his  gloomy  moments,  the  same  ideas  had 
passed  rapidly  through  his  heated  brain,  he  inwardly  felt 
that  ^\dsdom  required  of  him  to  retrace  his  steps.  For  a 
short  moment,  he  was  on  the  point  of  falling  at  his  mo- 
ther's feet,  revealing  to  her  all  his  secrets,  and  the  real  situ- 
ation of  his  affairs,  and  of  submitting  to  her  guidance  alone, 
determined  to  abide  by  her  decision.  But,  in  this  case, 
only  shreds  of  his  previous  fortune  would  remain,  to  attest 
forever  his  folly.  Scarcely  any  honorable  way  would  be 
opened  to  him  to  rise  and  retrieve  something  of  his  former 
position.  How  could  he  show  his  face  in  society  ?  Where 
would  he  turn  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  any  one  ?  If  a 
single  religious  feeling  had  remained  in  his  heart ;  if  he  had 
been  susceptible  of  the  least  pious  emotion,  the  thought  of 
deserving  the  approval  of  his  conscience  and  his  God,  the 
desire  of  atoning  for  so  many  misdeeds,  might  have  sup- 
ported him  in  this  hour  of  temptation,  and  given  him  the 
strength  to  rise,  like  the  prodigal  son,  and  exclaim  ^:)^C(?a^)^/ 
but  nothing  of  the  kind  could  be  of  avail  in  his  position ; 
his  soul  was  seared  to  every  emotion  above  the  wretched 
world  in  which  he  had  moved,  and  was  moving  at  the 
time. 

On  the  other  side,  the  moment  was  fast  approaching  when 
he  knew  that  a  great  blow  was  to  be  struck  by  those  he 
called  his  friends  ;  there  remained  but  a  couple  of  days,  he 


JUST  THE  DAY  BEFORE.  299 

thouglit,  before  that  epoch  arrived  ;  and  he  was  yet  sure — 
at  least,  in  times  of  elated  feelings  and  worldly  aspiration — 
that  success  would  smile  on  him,  and  repair  all  the  late 
injuries  of  fortune.  He  did  not,  therefore,  fall  at  the  feet 
of  his  mother.  He,  on  the  contrary,  took  a  proud  attitude, 
and  replied,  although  with  some  hesitation:  "I  did  not 
think  of  my  father,  madam,  when  I  spoke  as  I  did.  I  am 
pretty  sure  that,  if  he  had  found  himself  in  my  position,  he 
would  have  acted  as  I  do,  since,  really,  there  is  but  one 
way  open  for  me.  I  am  confident,  mother,"  he  said,  with 
a  more  conciliating  expression,  ''that  in  a  week  or  so  you 
•will  not  blame  me  ;  and  that,  at  least,  you  will  not  fear  the 
disgrace  of  which  you  said  what,  I  confess,  I  did  not  expect 
from  you." 
And  wdth  these  words  he  left  the  room  of  his  mother. 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne,  acting  on  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  district  attorney,  was  not  idle  in  his  in- 
vestigations. Ahern,  following  closely  the  goings  in  and 
out  of  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride,  had  found  out  his  connection  with 
the  Friskey  clique,  and,  as  the  stock  exchange  was  becom- 
ing every  day  more  excited,  and  the  merchants'  complaints 
grew  each  moment  louder,  young  O' Byrne  became  con- 
vinced of  a  conspiracy  to  withdraw  gold  from  circulation, 
long  before  any  stock  gambler  of  the  strength  of  Mr.  Fred- 
erick could  suspect  the  idea  of  "  cornering  gold."  He  had 
heard  from  Boyle,  who  was,  of  course,  always  porter  in 
the  house  of  T.  Bland  &  Co.,  that  these  gentlemen,  who 
had  never  before  experienced  any  difiiculty  in  their  com- 
mercial operations,  and  always  found  at  their  disposal  any 
amount  they  required  of  coin  for  either  "duties"  or  "ex- 
change," were  now  fairly  "nonplused,"  and  had  been  lit- 
erally on  the  point  of  "suspending" — the  most  dreadful 
situation,  indeed,  for  an  honorable  and  strong  house.  Mr. 
Cornelius  0' Byrne,  anxious  to  know  the  extent  of  the  evil, 
had  employed  several  young  Irishmen  of  his  acquaintance, 
intelligent,  active,  personally  friendly,  and  desirous  of  being 
useful  to  him,  to  make  inquiries  in  many  other  large  houses, 


300  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

and,  with  prudence  and  discretion,  they  had  obtained  de- 
tailed infonnation  which  presented  the  case  in  a  much 
stronger  light  than  any  newspaper  then  alive,  as  the  art  of 
"interviewing"  had  so  far  scarcely  been  attempted,  much 
less  had  it  grown  to  the  proportions  it  afterward  attained. 
In  fact,  the  situation  in  New  York  had  become  as  desperate 
as  that  described  by  Macaulay,  in  England,  at  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  under  the  administration  of  Somers 
and  Montague,  when  the  old  coin  had  been  called  in  by 
the  Government,  on  account  of  its  loss  in  weight,  and  the 
new  coin  could  not  be  put  in  circulation  in  the  proportion 
required  for  the  commercial  affairs  of  the  kingdom.  ' '  There 
were,  indeed,  some  hammered  pieces,"  he  says,  "which had 
escaped  mutilation,  and  sixpences,  not  clipped  within  the 
innermost  ring,  were  still  current.  This  old  money  and  the 
new  money  together  made  up  a  scanty  stock  of  silver,  which, 
with  the  help  of  some  gold,  was  to  carry  the  nation  through 
the  summer.  The  manufacturers  generally  continued, 
though  with  extreme  difficulty,  to  pay  their  workmen  in 
coin.  The  upper  classes  seemed  to  have  lived,  to  a  great 
extent  on  credit.  Even  an  opulent  man  seldom  had  the 
means  of  discharging  the  weekly  bills  of  his  baker  and 
butcher.  A  promissory  note,  however,  subscribed  by  such 
a  man,  was  readily  taken  in  the  district  where  his  means 
and  character  were  well  known." 

The  difficulty  experienced  by  the  merchants  of  New  York 
was,  it  is  true,  very  different  from  that  which  puzzled  those 
of  England  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  There 
was  no  question  of  buying  bread  or  meat.  The  New  World, 
for  these  universal  needs,  was  blessed  with  bits  of  paper, 
called  "fractional  currency,"  representing  nothing,  yet  ac- 
cepted, with  a  great  deal  of  good  nature,  by  all  citizens 
alike,  because  they  knew  that  if  such  "currency"  was 
repudiated,  society  would  come  to  a  dead  lock,  and  men 
would  be  compelled  "  to  exchange  a  mat  for  a  hatchet,"  as 
Macaulay  says,  ' '  and  a  pair  of  moccasins  for  a  piece  of  veni- 
son," that  is  to  say,  would,  in  fact,  have  returned  to  a  state 
of  semi-barbarism.     The  difficulty  at  the  time  in  New  York 


JUST  THE  DA  Y  BEFORE.  301 

was  of  a  much  more  appalling  character,  because  it  could 
not  be  turned  by  a  flank  movement,  and  passed  over  by  a 
simple  system  of  small  exchanges.  There  was  question  of 
the  existence  of  all  large  commercial  or  manufacturing 
houses,  which  cannot  live  vdthout  the  precious  metals,  and 
would  have  to  close  their  doors  or  go  into  bankruptcy,  being 
unable  to  pay  the  enormous  premium  artificially  imposed 
by  the  wicked  manoeuvres  of  a  set  of  gamblers.  It  was  a 
real  ''conspiracy"  against  the  prosperity  of  the  whole 
country,  and  the  individual  fortunes  of  many  respectable 
and  useful  families  of  citizens,  without  whose  extensive 
operations  a  iDeople  cannot  be  a  great  nation. 

Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  took  this  view  of  it,  and  went 
openly  to  denounce  it  again  to  the  district  attorney,  taking 
with  him  two  papers  he  had  written,  on  one  of  which  were 
the  names  of  numerous  merchants  in  danger  of  failure  by 
the  gigantic  swindle,  and  on  the  other  the  names  of  a  few 
adventurers  clubbed  together  by  the  irrepressible  lust  for 
unlawful  gain. 

The  district  attorney  admired  his  activity,  his  just  ideas 
of  morality,  his  uprightness  and  desire  of  promoting  the 
public  good  ;  but,  after  a  few  moments'  reflection,  he  began 
to  write  on  a  foolscap  sheet  of  paper  a  number  of  indica- 
tions of  statutes,  enactments,  laws,  until  that  day  elaborated 
in  the  various  legislatures  of  the  State  of  New  York,  for 
the  protection  of  society,  and,  handing  it  to  the  young  Irish- 
man, "Here  you  have,"  he  said,  "the  materials  of  a  good 
lesson  in  law.  Go  back  to  my  office  ;  peruse  the  various 
texts  referred  to  in  this  paper  :  they  are,  I  am  afraid,  all  the 
restraints  our  legislators  have  imposed  on  the  rapacity  of 
sharpers  ;  and  I  doubt  if  you  will  find  a  single  one  author- 
izing a  prosecution  from  me.  Imagine  my  position  if  I 
summoned  Mr.  Friskey,  Mr.  J.  G.,  and  all  the  others,  to 
appear  before  any  court,  and  answer  your  charges,  speci- 
fied as  strongly  as  you  and  I  could.  See  what  your  testi- 
mony would  come  to,  and  what  your  good  sense  will  tell 
you  on  the  subject.  In  my  opinion,  the  only  thing  which 
could  be  done  would  be  to  publish  openly  aU  those  details, 


302  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

and  let  public  opinion  rise  in  anger  against  such  reckless- 
ness. But,  should  YOU  do  so,  yoxi  may  be  sure  that  none 
of  the  '  organs  of  public  opinion, '  as  they  are  called,  will 
take  your  view  of  the  subject,  which  I  think  is  the  right 
view.  All  these  journalists  have  their  own  ax  to  grind, 
and  their  personal  views  on  all  subjects.  Many  of  them 
will  publish  ludicrous  accounts  of  your  endeavors,  and 
make  you  appear  ridiculous  in  the  eyes  of  the  public ; 
others  will  merely  say  that  these  denunciations  concern  the 
law  authorities,  and  not  editors  of  newspapers,  who  might 
be  prosecuted  for  libel,  etc.  The  best,  in  my  opinion, 
friend  0' Byrne,  is  to  keep  this  to  yourself,  and  continue  to 
inquire,  because  some  of  those  men,  in  their  frenzy,  may 
become  openly  guilty  of  theft  or  violence." 

Thus  the  stock  gamblers  were  at  liberty  to  go  on  in  their 
mad  career.  The  ever-growing  excitement  of  the  exchange 
was  daily  the  subject  of  long  comments  in  the  public  jour- 
nals, and  gold  continued  rising  steadily.  But  at  last  the 
moment  had  arrived  for  the  Great  Friskey  Combination  to 
strike  their  last  blow,  and  the  word  was  passed  around  by 
the  leaders  to  be  prepared  for  the  day ;  this  was  to  be  the 
memorable  one  destined  to  be  kept  in  remembrance  for  a 
long  time  in  the  annals  of  New  York  as  "  Black  Friday." 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

BLACK  FRIDAY  AIS^D   THE   CRASH. 

If  the  *' conspirators" — as  they  liave  been  called — had 
made  up  their  mind  to  enrich  themselves  suddenly  by  a 
'*  corner  in  gold,"  and  had  leisurely  prepared  themselves 
for  the  great  occasion,  the  public  of  New  York,  even  those 
who  thought  themselves  the  best  posted  on  the  all-impor- 
tant subject  of  finance,  were,  in  fact,  blissfully  ignorant  of 
the  smallest  detail  of  the  scheme.  This  is  what  any  one 
can  read  in  the  money -article  of  one  of  the  most  prominent 
New  York  papers,  just  three  days  before  the  dreadful  ex- 
plosion :  On  Tuesday,  September  21st,  it  was  thought  in 
Wall  Street,  that  "the  bear  movement  in  gold  and  stocks 
had  withdrawn  a  great  deal  of  money  from  circulation  ;  and 
the  plans  of  the  cliques  not  being  consummated  as  yet,  the 
money  is  not  returned,  but  still  kept  out  of  the  market,  to 
help  the  cliques  in  obtaining  stocks  as  cheaply  as  possible." 
There  are  in  this  statement  as  many  mistakes  as  words ; 
and  thus  the  poor  victims  to  be  fleeced  were  indulging  in 
fancies  as  wide  of  the  mark  as  heaven  is  distant  from  the 
earth.  First,  the  great  cause  of  the  "famine  in  gold"  was 
attributed  to  the  poor  hears  who  were  precisely  the  victims 
of  it.  Secondly,  the  money  was  said  to  be  withdrawn  mo- 
mentarily, only  because  the  'plans  of  the  cliques  "  were 
not  yet  consummated  ;  as  soon  as  this  happened  it  would 
come  back  wdth  a  rush.  Thirdly,  stocTcs  only  were  supposed 
to  be  the  gi-eat  object  of  speculation,  gold  was  a  mere  in- 
cident—the very  reverse  of  truth.  Fourthly,  these  plans 
belonged  to  cliques^  two  at  least,  we  suppose ;  when  the 

303 


304  LOUISA  KIBKBHIDE. 

fact  was  that  there  was  but  one  clique,  which  has  been  so 
far  called  the  Friskey  Combination.  The  word  clique  being 
shorter,  and  certainly  more  appropriate,  will  be  henceforth 
used  exclusively.  It  is  ominous  to  see  such  a  crowd  of 
financiers  in  the  city  of  New  York,  thus  fatally  deceived 
on  the  eve  of  a  universal  crash.  Why,  the  young  editor  of 
the  Washington  County  Bugle  had  more  wisdom  in  his 
single  head  than  all  those  veterans  of  the  stock  exchange. 

But  the  fatality  of  the  deception  was  increased  by  the 
firm  persuasion  that  ''the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  to 
purchase  two  millions  of  bonds  on  Wednesday,  September 
22d,  and  one  million  more  on  Thursday,  the  23d  ;  and  thus 
the  local  market  of  New  York  city  would  receive  a  contri- 
bution of  three  millions  in  gold  before  Friday."  This,  of 
course,  was  thought  amply  sufiicient  to  ward  off  all  dan- 
ger of  a  crash  ;  since  the  difficulty  was  supposed  to  be  but 
slight,  and  to  come  only  from  a  ' '  temporary  movement  of 
the  bears."  They,  therefore,  put ' '  that  flattering  unction  to 
their  soul,"  that  by  Friday,  at  the  very  latest,  everything 
would  be  "as  merry  as  a  marriage  bell." 

Meanwhile,  the  ''  bears  "  were  selling  stocks  in  great  quan- 
tities, and  consequently  stocks  fell,  to  the  great  chagrin  of 
the  ''bulls,"  as  everybody  thought.  Nobody  saw  that  by 
the  very  fall  of  stocks  gold  was  rising,  and  this  was  just 
the  trump  card  of  the  "bulls,"  namely,  of  the  Friskey 
Combination,  or  rather  of  the  "clique,"  as  we  have  just 
promised  to  call  it  henceforth.  The  "  clique  "  was  admira- 
bly successful  during  this  Tuesday,  21st  day  of  September. 
At  the  end  of  it,  the  New  York  Central  stock  had  fallen 
from  202|  to  198{.  The  Erie  had  positively  tumbled  down 
from  89 1  to  38 J.  Pacific  Mail  from  78.;^  to  75.  Mr.  Frede- 
rick, who  had,  of  course,  grounded  his  hopes  for  the  day  on 
the  Erie  stock,  must  have  lost  dreadfully  ;  but  he  did  not 
acquaint  anybody  with  the  extent  of  his  operations. 

On  the  following  day,  Wednesday,  September  22d,  the 
delusion  continued.  Wall  Street  thought  only  of  stocks, 
and  scarcely  bestowed  a  thought  on  gold.  Just  forty-eight 
hours  before  the  impending  doom  for  many,  arrived,  and  no 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND  TEE  CRASH.  305 

one  appeared  even  to  suspect  in  what  shape  the  scourge 
would  come.  So  far  the  clique  had  kept  its  secret  all  to 
itself ;  and  neither  Mr.  Frederick  nor  his  confidential 
agent  were  more  enlightened  on  the  subject  than  the  most 
obtuse-minded  stock  broker  of  the  whole  establishment. 
The  fluctuations  of  the  N.  Y.  Central  and  Erie  were  fright- 
ful. At  one  time,  the  first  of  these  stocks,  which  had 
opened  in  the  morning  at  195^,  fell  to  176 — a  fall  of  about 
ten  per  cent. — horrible  indeed  to  contemplate  !  When  the 
enormous  amount  of  shares  that  changed  hands  during 
those  dreadful  hours  is  considered,  the  loss  that  must  have 
been  incurred  by  a  large  number  of  operators,  is  almost 
beyond  all  calculation.  At  least  we  will  neither  attempt  to 
perform  the  arithmetical  operation  required,  nor  inflict  it  on 
the  reader. 

These  fitful,  incomprehensible,  and  fatal  fluctuations  in 
N.  Y.  Central  particularly,  were  encouraged  by  the  wildest 
rumors.  The  supporters  of  Erie  wished  evidently  to  revenge 
themselves  for  the  extraordinary  losses  of  the  day  previous, 
and  did  not  stop  at  the  most  palpable  fabrications,  which 
their  gullible  victims  swallowed  with  evident  relish.  Thus, 
at  one  time,  Mr.  Vanderbilt,  the  great  manager  of  the  Cen- 
tral Railroad,  had  died  suddenly  of  disease  of  the  heart. 
The  corporation,  deprived  of  its  able  administration,  would 
soon  fall  to  pieces,  and  could  never  find  a  new  head  able 
to  cope  in  ability  with  Jas.  Friskey,  of  the  ''Dunkirk" 
line  of  railway.  Soon,  however,  the  news  was  found  to  be 
"  too  good  to  be  true."  Mr.  Vanderbilt  was  acknowledged 
to  be  yet  alive,  nay,  in  full  vigor  and  activity.  He  had  posi- 
tively been  seen  by  several  travelers,  that  very  morning,  on 
his  way  to  Albany,  where  he  was  going  to  obtain  from  the 
State  Legislature  the  "consolidation"  of  the  Central  with 
the  Hudson  River  R.R.  It  was  a  well-known  scheme  of  his 
own,  which  he  had  not  yet  been  able  to  carry  through. 
The  financial  enemies  of  Mr.  Vanderbilt  and  of  his  enter- 
prises were  sure  that  he  would  no  more  succeed  this  time 
than  before.  In  fact  a  good  number  of  the  stockholders  of 
the  Central  had  always  been  opposed  to  its  ''  consolidation  " 
20 


306  LOTUS  A  KIRKBRIDE. 

with  the  Hudson  River  Railway.  !N"o  man  under  the  influence 
of  the  Friskey  interest  could  ever  imagine  that  this  arduous 
undertaking  of  Mr.  Vanderbilt  could  ever  overcome  the  nu- 
merous obstacles  that  lay  in  its  way.  Thus  the  stock  of  the 
Central  went  down,  down,  down.  All  the  other  branches  of 
the  vast  enterprises  of  the  celebrated  "  Commodore,"  as  he 
was  still  called,  went  down  likewise,  though  not  with  such 
frightful  rapidity.  The  Harlem  from  145  fell  to  140  ;  and 
the  Hudson  River  from  170  to  166. 

Thus  was  a  great  part  of  Wednesday,  September  22d, 
passed  in  the  weakening,  or  rather  the  threatened  destruc- 
tion of  large  railroad  enterprises  which  had  been  under- 
taken and  so  far  successfully  carried  through  for  a  widely 
different  object. 

The  latter  part  of  this  same  day,  however,  a  new  feature 
suddenly  appeared  which  took  everybody  by  surprise.  It 
was  unaccountably  reported  that  a  terrible  fight  was  going 
on  in  the  Gold  Room  between  the  bears  and  the  bulls.  This 
time  it  was  a  question  of  gold,  not  of  stocks.  The  bears  all 
at  once  emboldened  by  some  local  advantage — the  nature  of 
which  we  did  not  care  to  ascertain  in  the  numerous  papers 
which  all  the  actual  details  are  taken  from — attacked  the 
bulls  with  fury,  so  that  gold  fell  to  137|.  The  ''innocent 
bulls"  were  supposed  to  have  been  almost  disheartened  by 
the  success  of  their  enemies,  and  this  all  the  people  of 
Gotham  believed  implicitly  on  the  evening  of  that  event- 
ful day.  But  the  broad  daylight  experience  of  the  two 
following  days  completely  proved  the  fallacy  of  that  sup- 
position. The  "bulls,"  or  rather  the  "clique,"  was  not  dis- 
heartened. Far  from  it !  It  was,  in  fact,  a  part  of  their  plan 
which  it  is  proper  to  briefly  explain.  Their  great  object — 
known  tons  at  this  time,  but  then  unknown — was  to  "cor- 
ner gold,"  that  is  to  monopolize  it,  so  as  to  be  able  to  put  on 
it  the  price  they  wished,  and  thus  become  immediately  rich 
in  a  moment.  In  their  long  x^reparations,  previously  de- 
scribed, and  on  the  last  two  days  when  stocks  tumbled  down 
with  such  rapidity,  they  had  purchased,  in  fact,  absolutely 
all  the  gold  contained  in  the  various  banking  institutions  of 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND   THE  CRASH.  307 

the  city,  amounting  to  about  820,000,000.  This  is  a  fact 
which  was  fully  ascertained  after  the  crash.  But  there  was 
still  left  a  pretty  large  quantity  of  the  precious  metal  remain- 
ing loose,  as  it  were  ;  that  is,  out  of  the  banks'  possession, 
and  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the  poor  bears,  who  had  acquired 
a  pretty  large  amount  of  it  by  selling,  selling,  selling  stock  as 
detailed  in  the  operations  of  yesterday,  September  21st. 
This  share  the  ' '  clique ' '  wanted  to  lay  their  hands  on  ;  and 
they  succeeded  in  inducing  the  very  green  bears  to  attack 
them  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  in  their  visible  policy  of 
raising  the  price  of  gold.  The  bears  all  at  once  appeared  on 
the  field  intent  to  lower  it.  The  "bulls,"  or  the  "  clique," 
submitted  to  an  apparent  whipping,  allowed  the  price  to  fall 
suddenly  as  low  as  137|,  after  having  kept  it  at  a  much 
higher  range.  The  bears  appeared  triumphant,  when  the 
"  clique  "  bought  all  the  gold  at  that  price,  and  thus  finally 
they  had  attained  the  great  object  of  their  wishes  ;  they  had 
in  their  possession  all  the  precious  metal  the  State  of  New 
York  possessed,  or  at  least  they  knew  they  would  surely 
have  it  during  the  afternoon  of  the  following  day,  Thursday 
the  23d,  and  be  thus  ready  for  their  swoop  of  the  next  Fri- 
day. The  operation  brought  the  attention  of  everybody 
on  the  Gold  Room,  but  very  few  if  any  had  yet  any  inkling 
of  what  was  to  follow. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  the  22d,  the  gross  clear- 
ances at  the  Gold  Exchange  Bank  were  $98,392,000.  To 
understand  the  full  meaning  of  this,  the  reader  must  be 
informed  that  those  clearances  indicate  the  amount  of 
financial  operations  gone  through  during  the  day.  Now, 
it  is  well  ascertained  that  for  all  the  needs  of  legitimate 
business  in  New  York,  at  that  time,  $2,000,000  of  gold 
daily  were  amply  sufficient.  There  were,  therefore,  more 
than  $96,000,000  of  gold  actually  used  for  mere  gambling. 
Rather,  the  gold  was  not,  in  fact,  used,  and  never  changed 
hands.  The  whole  operation  consisted  in  transfers  on 
memorandum  books,  and  payments  or  receipts  of  ' '  mar- 
gins," according  as  there  had  been  a  loss  or  a  gain  for  the 
holder. 


308  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

On  Wednesday,  September  23d,  the  excitement  began 
early  to  run  liigh  at  the  gold  room.  The  stock  exchange 
seemed  to  be  rather  deserted,  though  the  bears  were  still  so 
infatuated  that  they  ultimately  thought  only  of  stocks  and 
carried  on  their  operations  in  view  of  this.  There  was  soon 
in  the  day,  ''a  shouting  mass  of  brokers  wedged  in  the  gold 
room."  The  gold  dials  were  anxiously  consulted  every 
moment,  as  the  fluctuations  were  consecutively  announced 
by  the  bell.  The  bears  had  commenced  in  earnest  again, 
following  their  fatal  plan  of  the  day  before.  They  sold, 
sold,  sold,  and  the  "clique"  bought,  bought,  bought,  until 
gold  finally  reached  141  J.  Here,  there  was  a  short  lull; 
and  it  is  proper  to  take  advantage  of  it  for  considering  a 
moment  how  far  Mr.  Frederick  was  succeeding  in  his  opera- 
tions. This  young  gentleman  was  just  in  the  midst  of  the 
already  mentioned  "shouting  mass  of  brokers."  A  fine 
position,  indeed,  for  the  son  and  heir  of  Ealph  S.  Kirk- 
bride  !  Were  he  one  of  the  "  shouting  brokers,"  we  would 
not  be  surprised,  though  our  documents  say  positively 
nothing  on  the  subject.  At  any  rate,  he  was  operating 
largely  on  his  fast  decreasing  "large  capital."  The  im- 
portant question  is  to  know  what  direction  he  gave  to  his 
operations,  in  fact,  what  was  the  only  direction  he  could 
give  to  them.  He  shared,  of  course,  with  the  general  pub- 
lic the  universal  delusion,  that  stocks  were  trumps,  and 
gold  only  an  incident ;  and  he  was  one  of  those  who  sold, 
sold,  sold  in  the  gold  room,  that  is,  he  loaded  himself  with 
stocks.  He  may  have  thought  that  he  was  becoming  richer, 
but  if  he  did,  it  was  an  egregious  mistake.  As  soon  as 
"the  turn"  would  come — and  it  was  very  soon  to  come — 
when  the  eyes  of  all  would  be  opened,  and  the  policy  of  the 
"clique"  should  finally  be  unmasked,  he  would  find  him- 
self with  a  mass  of  dex)reciated  currency,  with  no  gold  to 
sell,  and  thus  he  would  not  be  able  to  act  with  the  clique, 
whose  critical  moment  would  have  arrived.  How  could  he 
then  shout  his  quotations  rapidly,  on  a  rising  scale,  and 
triumph  with  them  in  the  defeat,  or  rather  discomfiture  of 
the  bears.     He  would  be  himself  one  of  the  most  miserable 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND    THE  CRASH.  309 

bears  of  the  whole  pack,  and  to  buy  gold,  which  then 
wonld  be  trumps,  he  would  have  to  part  with  his  rag- cur- 
rency at  such  a  rate  that  this  wretched  money  would  fairly 
melt  in  his  hands,  and  disappear  like  "the  shadow  of  a 
dream." 

Nay,  this  dreadful  picture  represents  him  under  false  col- 
ors, and  greatly  exaggerates  his  real  position  and  attitude. 
The  reader  ought  to  remember  that  all  these  wretched  men 
did  not  deal,  in  their  operations,  with  real  money — paper  or 
coin — but  staked  on  the  wheel  of  fortune  immense  amounts, 
of  which  they  did  not  possess  one  hundreth  part.  The 
losses  and  gains  were  to  be  adjusted  only  by  the  "mar- 
gins;" and  these  margins  could  not  be  ascertained  but 
after  the  conflict.  Was  there  no  danger  for  Mr.  Frederick  to 
find  himself  in  the  end  stripped  of  every  penny  he  was  still 
the  owner  of  ?  All  these  reflections  passed  rapidly  before 
his  mind,  for  he  was  not  a  booby,  and  his  life,  so  far,  has 
furnished  us  many  proofs  that  he  was  capable  of  judging 
accurately  of  actual  and  prospective  chances.  How  bitter 
must  have  been  his  regret  to  have  given  up  the  solid  estab- 
lishment in  Beaver  Street  to  enter  on  such  a  wild  career  of 
folly  !  Oh  !  if  he  could  then  have  retraced  his  steps  !  But 
it  was  too  late,  he  had  to  empty  the  sickening  cup  to  the 
dregs. 

What  still  increased  his  terrible  disapi3ointment  was  to 
perceive  with  a  kind  of  stolid  surprise  the  small  figure  he 
cut  in  the  midst  of  this  gigantic  pandemonium.  One  of  the 
great  motives  which  had  enticed  him  from  the  beginning  to 
follow  this  great  highway  to  fortune,  was  the  importance 
he  thought  it  would  give  him  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  New  York,  nay,  perhaps  of  the  whole  country. 
The  papers  would  speak  of  him  every  day,  and  record  with 
full  details,  his  lucky  throws  on  the  field  of  chance.  What 
a  glorious  life  he  had  pictured  to  himself !  How  different 
from  the  plodding  tramp  of  the  counting-room  !  But  this 
bright  anticipation  had  also  vanished.  Elbowed,  crowded 
in,  jammed,  in  fact,  crushed,  in  the  midst  of  a  "shouting 
mass  of  brokers,"  he  was  not  greater  than  any  of  them. 


310  LOUISA  KIBKBItlDE, 

Owing  to  the  leveling  customs  lately  introduced,  the  poorest 
of  them  could  make  as  fine  a  show  as  the  richest.  Every 
one  could  bid  on  hundreds  of  thousands,  when  he  was  in 
reality  the  owner  of  only  a  few  hundreds.  Mr.  Frederick, 
for  instance,  was  there  no  greater  man  than  our  old  friend, 
O'Tee,  of  whom  we  will  soon  have  occasion  to  say  a  few 
words.  This  is  not  enough.  Foolish  "  honest  John  "  could 
bid  as  high  as  his  former  ''employer,"  if  he  only  could  en- 
tirely divest  himself  of  the  groveling  spirit  of  a  valet  that 
he  once  was.  Was  it  not  a  humiliating  thought  for  the 
proud  heir  of  the  Kirkbrides,  for  the  supercilious  sprig  of 
aristocracy  ? 

Yes  ;  with  all  his  talent  for  aping  great  manners  and  high 
dealings,  Mr.  John,  present,  of  course,  in  the  noisy  crowd, 
was  completely  bewildered  by  all  he  saw  and  heard.  He 
had  not  yet  assumed,  and  could  not  yet  assume  the  sub- 
lime contempt  for  "the  fixed  nature  of  things"  which  was 
the  happy  characteristic  of  the  great  ''shouting  mass  of 
brokers."  These  men  knew  that  without  any  capital  they 
could  bid  for  millions.  John  had  a  semi-intuitive  idea  of 
it :  but  it  was  not  yet  perfectly  clear  in  his  mind ;  and  so 
he  could  not  heartily  "shout"  with  all  the  others.  He 
confined  himself  to  insignificant  bids  which  gave  him  an 
altogether  ridiculous  position  in  the  dignified  assembly. 
It  is  said  that  on  several  occasions  on  that  momentous  22d 
of  September,  he  heard  some  of  his  neighbors,  right  and 
left,  laugh,  or  at  least  giggle  audibly,  when  they  heard  him 
utter  such  pitiful  ejaculations,  and,  apparently  unable,  in 
his  arithmetical  vocabulary,  to  go  beyond  three  figures  at  a 
time.  The  poor  man,  nevertheless,  although  so  modest  in 
his  aspirations,  was  fairly  bursting  with  rage,  because  he 
was  sharp  enough  to  perceive  that  he  would  most  probably 
leave  the  room  in  the  afternoon  as  bare  of  money  as  he  was 
when  he  set  out  from  England  many  years  before.  The 
reader  will  have  a  further  occasion  to  witness  his  behavior 
the  following  day  and  the  next. 

Meanwhile  the  public  weal  or  woe  requires  more  our  at- 
tention than  even  Mr.  Frederick  or  his  confidential  agent. 


BLACK  PBIDAT  AND  THE  CBASH.  311 

What  of  the  merchants  of  New  York,  at  noon,  on  that 
Wednesday,  September  22d?  The  reader  is  aware  that 
they  had  long  before  bitterly  complained  of  the  high 
price  of  gold.  As  during  the  last  few  days,  this  price  had 
still  fearfully  increased,  there  could  not  be  a  great  deal  of 
satisfaction  among  them.  Yet,  to  the  surprise  of  all,  on 
the  morning  of  this  day,  as  well  as  the  day  previous,  a 
certain  number  of  them  appeared  rather  to  like  it.  This  is 
at  least  what  we  read  in  the  papers  of  that  period  :  ' '  Many 
of  them  wished  for  a  hiirh  price  of  gold,  as  they  thought  it 
beneficial  to  their  trade."  How  it  was  so  we  did  not  care 
to  inquire  ;  but  it  seems  it  was  a  fact. 

On  the  afternoon  of  that  Wednesday,  however,  there  was 
a  sudden  change.  The  rise  was  suddenly  so  unprecedented 
that  it  appeared  to  be,  probably,  ''too  much  of  a  good 
thing,"  and  a  howl  was  heard  from  the  wholesale  houses 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  city,  which  began  to  indicate  some 
sore  sjjot  on  the  commercial  body.  They  wrote  singly  at 
first,  then  in  groups  of  a  few,  then  in  large  numbers,  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  at  Washington,  Mr.  Boutwell, 
begging  him  to  sell  some  of  the  Government  gold  at  New 
York  for  the  relief  of  the  mercantile  conmiunity.  Mr. 
Boutwell  answered,  it  seems,  by  telegraph,  that  he  could 
not  go  in  his  gold  sales  farther  than  the  amount  prescribed 
to  him  by  Congress,  which  was  not  at  the  time  sitting,  and 
from  which  he  could  not,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  obtain 
abUl. 

The  distress  of  the  merchants  became,  suddenly,  so  press- 
ing that  they  telegraphed,  and  telegraphed  again,  urging  on 
the  secretary  reasons  that  must  appear  strange  to  a  cool 
reader,  so  many  years  after  the  time.  The  burden  of  their 
song  was  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  at  its  next 
sitting,  would  never  complain  of  the  excellent  secretary,  as 
he  would  merely  have  concluded  a  bargain  much  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  Government,  that  could  never  expect  at  its 
gold  sales  a  premium  so  high  as  at  this  moment.  The  high- 
minded  secretary  had  to  reply  that  the  Government  could 
not  become  a  speculator  on  money,  and  thus  the  curtain 


312  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

fell  on  the  stage  of  the  gold  room  on  Wednesday  after- 
noon. 

Early  the  next  morning,  Thursday,  September  23d,  the 
whole  city  was  highly  excited.  Wall  Street  itself  was  alive 
long  before  the  hour  of  opening  at  the  exchange.  The 
wildest  rumors  were  current,  and  nobody  could  know  what 
to  believe  or  disbelieve.  One  thing,  however,  was  now  cer- 
tain :  the  contest  would  be  carried  on  for  gold,  and  scarcely 
anybody  afterward  spoke  of  stocks.  The  great  secret  of 
the  ''clique"  was  not  yet  out,  however.  That  there  could 
be  a  corner  in  gold  was  not  even  suspected  by  the  crowd. 
If  a  few  began  to  have  a  vague  idea  of  it,  they  did  not  dare 
to  express  their  suspicions  for  fear  of  being  taken  for  fools. 
It  was  the  next  day  only  that  the  eyes  of  the  most  simple 
would  be  open.  Consequently,  to  the  last  moment  of  the 
22d  of  September,  Mr.  Frederick  had  been  loading  himself 
with  stocks,  and  he  looked,  this  morning,  the  very  picture 
of  bewilderment  when  he  saw  that  stocks  were  altogether 
discarded,  and  seemed  to  have  no  more  value  than  the  rags 
you  might  pick  up  in  the  street.  He,  therefore,  began  to 
buy  gold,  as,  in  fact,  he  could  do  nothing  else.  But  for 
what  object,  and  what  could  he  do  next  with  his  gold, 
passed  altogether  his  comprehension. 

The  hour  for  opening  finally  came,  and  the  crowd  of  the 
previous  afternoon  in  the  gold  room  rushed  in  pell-mell,  in 
the  wildest  confusion,  and  with  the  most  discordant  cries. 
"  The  great  glittering  golden  calf,"  says  a  paper  of  the  day, 
"the  idol  of  thousands,  the  cause  of  sleepless  nights,  bad 
temper,  and  anxiety,  was  raised  on  high  not  far  from  the 
towering  spire  of  Trinity  Church."  Look  on  those  worship- 
ers, the  prey  of  the  basest  passions,  the  slaves  of  the  lowest 
appetites.  Where  on  earth  can  you  find  such  a  medley  of 
low  physiognomies,  and  ill-bred  faces  ?  See  their  bold  atti- 
tudes, their  frantic  gestures,  their  flaming  eyes  and  gaping 
mouths.  Hear  their  wild  cries,  their  vulgar  taunts,  their 
forced  laughter.  Is  it  for  scenes  such  as  these  that  the 
splendid  edifice  of  the  Exchange  had  been  raised  to  com- 
merce and  enterprise  ?    And  is  this  assemblage  a  fair  type 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND   THE  CRASH.  313 

of  the  sober-minded,  cautious,  well-bred,  and  respectable 
American  people  ?  It  would  be  almost  blasphemy  to  pre- 
tend it. 

But  we  must  attend  to  "business."  At  the  very  begin- 
ning of  the  day  a  rumor  is  spread,  that  ' '  an  announcement 
had  come  from  the  Treasury  at  Washington,  promising  that 
the  November  gold  interest  would  be  paid  in  anticipation." 
Mr.  Boutwell  had  refused  the  evening  previous  to  come  to 
the  relief  of  the  merchants.  All  knew  it  ;  but  this  was 
thought  to  be  a  so^d  to  render  the  distress  less  grievous. 
Was  it  not  again  a  trick  of  the  "bulls,"  that  is,  of  the 
clique,  to  induce  the  poor  "bears  "  to  finish  selling  the  last 
gold  they  had  ?  This  is  the  only  inference  which  can  be 
drawn  from  actual  facts,  since  no  such  "announcement" 
ever  came  from  Washington  on  that  day.  But  from  this 
moment  the  activity  of  men  buying  and  selling  was  such 
that  nothing  of  the  kind  had  ever  been  witnessed  ;  and  the 
actors  on  this  great  stage  must  have  considered  themselves 
as  participating  in  a  mighty  event,  up  to  this  unprece- 
dented, and  never,  perhaps,  to  be  reproduced.  If  any  of 
them  thought  so,  they  were  no  prophets,  and  did  not  fore- 
see the  mightier  events  of  the  following  day.  It  began  to 
be  rumored  that  the  gold  already  accumulated  by  the 
"  clique  "  could  not  be  less  than  twenty  millions  of  dollars. 
These  bold  calculators  were  yet  below  the  mark,  as  the 
sequel  proved.  But  the  despairing  bears  thought  they 
could  draw  some  comfort  and  hope  from  this  piece  of  news. 
"The  bulls,"  they  thought,  "would  surely  break  down 
under  the  fearful  weight  of  so  much  heavy  metal.  The 
way  they  were  acting  was  such  that  each  operation  requir- 
ing a  larger  one  to  keep  it  up,  they  were,  in  fact,  building 
a  pyramid,  with  its  culminating  point  on  the  ground,  and 
its  ever-enlarging  basis  high  up  in  the  air."  The  simile 
was  perfect,  and  gave  much  courage  to  the  depressed  party. 
The  clique,  however,  did  not  appear  to  mind  it  much,  since 
they  continued  to  buy  gold.  But  as  this  was,  in  fact, 
merely  a  preparation  for  the  following  day,  it  would  be 
useless  to  enlarge  on  this  day's  operations;  the  various 


314  LOUISA  EIBEBBIDE. 

quotations  of  gold,  therefore,  and  the  total  amount  of  deal- 
ings on  Thursday,  had  better  be  omitted  altogether,  to  come 
to  the  last  tussle,  the  remembrance  of  which  must  be  kept, 
for  all  future  time,  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  proofs 
ever  given  of  the  folly  of  men  and  the  vanity  of  their  hopes. 
It  is  good  for  the  enlightenment  of  mankind  to  place  be- 
fore the  eyes  of  all  the  picture  of  the  excesses  to  which 
a  usually  sober-minded  people  can  rush  when  under  the 
sway  of  a  wild  and  uncontrollable  passion. 

At  an  early  hour  on  Friday,  September  24th,  the  whole 
city  was  alive.  All  the  horse-cars  running  down  from  the 
northern  end  of  Manhattan  Island  were  crowded,  or  rather, 
crammed,  not  only  by  mechanics  coming  from  Harlem  and 
Yorkville,  to  work  doAvn  toAvn,  but  by  well-dressed  people, 
who  usually  rode  every  day  the  same  way,  but  much  later. 
In  anticipation  of  the  mighty  events  which  everybody  ex- 
pected, they  had  breakfasted,  some  of  them,  two  hours 
before  their  ordinary  time,  in  order  to  be  able  to  reach  the 
exchange  before  it  was  completely  blocked.  Many  mer- 
chants, who,  from  time  immemorial,  had  always  been  seen 
going  directly  to  their  stores  or  offices,  appeared  to  have 
forgotten  the  place  where  they  invariably  stopped,  and 
rode  farther  down,  as  far  at  least  as  Wall  Street,  to  have 
a  peep  at  this  celebrated  locality,  or  a  chat  with  some 
friendly  broker,  who  was  supposed  to  be  posted  up  as  to 
what  was  going  to  happen.  As  to  the  brokers  themselves, 
there  were  only  two  places,  on  that  day,  at  which  they  could 
be  found,  and  this  was  the  vicinity  of  Trinity  Church,  or  the 
junction  of  Beaver  and  Pearl  streets.  Those  whose  offices 
were  farther  removed  from  both  spots,  had  deserted  them 
long  before  eight  o'clock,  taking,  of  course,  with  them  their 
papers,  orders,  etc.  The  exchange  was  the  cynosure  of  all 
eyes,  the  Mecca  of  all  aspirations,  the  El  Dorado  of  all  loco- 
motion. To  think,  at  half-past  eight  o'clock,  of  entering  it, 
was  as  vain  as  to  imagine  that  heaven  could  be  reached  in 
a  balloon,  or  God  propitiated  by  a  prayer  to  Mammon.    • 

Before  nine,  all  the  streets  around  the  great  Temple  of 
Plutus  were  literally  jammed  by  people  eager  to  hear  the 


BLACK  FBIDAT  AND   THE  CBASH,  315 

news,  in  order  to  profit  by  it.  But  wliat  they  learned  was 
mighty  little,  and  sometimes  worse  than  nothing,  for  their 
purpose.  This  was  positively  what  they  all  got  for  their 
pains.  Imagine,  gentle  reader,  the  whole  expanse  of  Wall 
Street,  from  Broadway  to  Pearl,  of  Broad  Street,  from 
Beaver  to  Xassau,  of  Exchange  Place,  from  New  Street  to 
Wall,  of  iS'ew  Street  itself,  of  Pine,  of  Cedar,  etc.,  packed 
with  people  of  the  upper  classes  of  society,  all  anxious  to 
mingle  in  the  fray,  that  is,  to  bid  in  order  to  win,  of  course  ; 
all  button-holing  their  neighbors  to  receive  some  welcome 
and  useful  information  ;  yet  all  in  the  end  completely  un- 
successful, and  as  wise  as  when  they  began.  Did  ever  the 
world  see  such  an  immense  number  of  fools,  intent  on  wor- 
shiping Mammon,  and  receiving  nothing  but  a  slap  on  the 
face  from  the  sportive  god  ?  Will  our  grandchildren  profit 
by  this  lesson  ?  Have  even  those  who  received  it  personally 
at  that  time,  profited  in  the  least  by  it  ? 

But  we  are  ourselves  privileged  jDersons.  Where  others 
cannot  go,  we  may  enter  freely,  examine  attentively,  re- 
flect leisurely,  and  report  to  others  most  accurately.  By  a 
little  magic  operation  we  are  at  once  inside  of  the  building. 
The  "shouting  mass  of  brokers,"  of  the  previous  day,  is 
again  there,  full  of  life  and  high  spirits.  Yesterday  you 
did  not  imagine  that  the  hall  could  contain  more  people 
than  it  did,  yet  to-day  there  are  a  good  many  hundred 
more,  only  each  of  them  occupies  a  much  smaller  space, 
and  it  is  in  consequence  more  discomposed  mentally,  and 
distressed  physically.  Yet  they  do  not  appear  to  mind  it 
much,  so  intent  are  they  on  the  worship)  of  the  god,  that 
is,  on  their  admiration  for  gold,  on  their  entire  self-sacrifice 
for  acquiring  the  possession  of  such  an  incomparable  boon. 

Finally,  to  use  the  language  of  one  of  the  most  accurate 
papers  of  the  day,  "The  gates  of  the  Pandemonium  were 
opened,  the  lines  were  regularly  drawn  in  order  of  battle, 
men  were  almost  wild  with  excitement.  A  mighty  crisis 
was  at  hand.  At  a  quarter-past  nine  o'  clock,  the  financial 
scene-shifters  had  every  thing  in  readiness,  while  the  mem- 
bers of  the  orchestra  in  the  gold  room  began  to  tune  up 


316  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

their  instruments  with  alacrity.  A  sturdy  broker,  with  an 
eye  glittering  like  a  diamond,  and  not  on  unfriendly  terms 
with  the  clique,  started  the  ball  by  bidding  150  foe  five 

MILLIONS  OF   GOLD." 

This  was  on  the  part  of  the  clique  the  final  and  fatal  un- 
masking of  their  batteries.  They  had  opened*"  a  corner  in 
gold,"  and  they  were  going  to  push  the  whole  community 
into  that  corner.  As  a  skillful  general,  keeping  his  artillery 
unseen,  sends  to  the  front  only  light  infantry,  and  posts  on 
the  flanks  some  squadrons  of  cavalry,  until  the  enemy, 
completely  deceived,  arrives  in  serried  ranks,  sure  of  dis- 
persing in  a  moment  these  light  troops,  and  of  winning  the 
day.  But  all  at  once  the  horsemen,  on  both  sides,  with- 
draw, as  if  by  magic  ;  the  light  infantry  to  the  lively  tunes 
of  its  brass  bands,  also  retires  to  the  right  and  left,  and 
suddenly  two  or  three  hundred  huge,  ugly  cast-iron  or  steel 
tubes  send  forth  from  their  deep-toned  throats,  large  red- 
hot  balls,  myriads  of  smaller  half-melted  cones  of  metal, 
and  an  indefinite  milky  way  of  small  bullets,  each  of  them 
able  to  kill  its  man.  What  a  fearful  havoc  all  these  sud- 
denly make  in  the  serried  ranks  of  the  enemy,  so  handsome 
and  orderly,  and  apparently  invincible  a  moment  ago  !  The 
battle-field  is  instantly  covered  with  corpses  or  mutilated 
and  writhing  bodies,  and  the  whole  adverse  army  melts 
away  in  a  moment  under  the  streaming  fire  of  those  innu- 
merable engines  of  death.  Thus,  at  last,  the  great  Friskey 
secret  had  come  out  to  throw  dismay  among  the  Wall  Street 
bears,  or  rather  to  impoverish  at  once,  by  a  bold  stroke,  the 
whole  commercial  and  financial  community. 

A  "sturdy  broker,  not  on  unfriendly  terms  with  the 
clique,  had  started  the  ball  by  bidding  one  hundred  and 
fifty  for  five  millions  of  gold."  The  very  clear  and  simple 
meaning  of  this  phrase  was  that  this  noble  exchange  was 
merely  an  auction  room,  in  which  a  broker,  the  agent  of 
the  clique,  was  selling  gold  to  any  citizen  who  needed  it. 
But  the  sale  was  to  take  place  on  extraordinary  condi- 
tions :  The  entire  amount  of  gold  previously  possessed  by 
all  the  wealthy  men  and  monetary  institutions  of  the  city  or 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND   THE  CEASE.  317 

State  of  New  York,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  clique  whose 
agent  this  broker  was,  he  whose  ' '  eyes  were  glittering  like 
diamonds."  Any  one  who  wished  to  have  some  little  share 
of  it,  to  bring  to  his  field  a  tiny  rivulet  from  the  main 
stream,  to  quench  his  thirst  in  a  small  tumbler  filled  from 
the  gushing  torrent  of  the  health-giving  waters,  must  bid 
for  it ;  and  the  bidding  must  start  from  the  point  despoti- 
cally assigned  by  this  ''sturdy  broker,"  namely,  150  in  cur- 
rency for  100  in  gold.  We  know  that  yesterday,  at  the 
end  of  a  long  struggle  in  the  gold  room,  the  price  was  141  J. 
Why  is  it  that  suddenly,  without  anything  extraordinary 
having  happened  during  the  night ;  no  great  national  loss, 
no  sensible  falling  do^\Ti  of  real  estate  or  personal  property, 
the  starting  price  is  150?  Tell  us,  Mr.  Auctioneer;  we 
want  light.  Had  there  been  need  of  any  explanation,  the 
auctioneer  would  have  probably  answered  in  this  way,  or 
''something  to  this  effect"  :  "The  case  is  very  different  to- 
day, gentlemen,  from  what  it  was  yesterday.  Yesterday 
none  of  you  knew  that  there  was  a  corner  in  gold.  The 
price  was  rising  steadily  according  to  the  usual  custom  of 
the  exchange.  Our  preparations  were  not  yet  fully  com- 
pleted. We  could  not,  without  a  reason,  oblige  you  to 
jump  at  once  from  141J  to  150.  To-day  we  can  speak 
openly.  We  tell  you  there  is  a  corner  in  gold.  We  are  the 
happy  possessors  of  it.  None  of  you  can  get  gold  except 
from  us.  In  the  name  of  those  who  have  the  exclusive  right 
of  distributing  it  to  you,  I  say  150  is  the  price  to  start  from  ; 
and  this  being  an  auction  room,  I  say  150,  150,  150,  who 
says  155?"  .  .  .  Such  would  have  been  the  plain  lan- 
guage of  the  sturdy  broker  with  eyes  glittering  like  dia- 
monds, had  there  been  any  need  of  it,  and  had  the  broker 
wished  to  speak  plainly  the  truth.  But  there  was  no  need 
of  it,  because  the  previous  evening,  during  a  great  part  of 
the  night,  and  the  whole  early  morning,  the  rumor  had 
spread  throughout  the  whole  city  that  there  was  a  corner 
in  gold  ;  everybody  knew  this  on  Friday  morning,  Septem- 
ber 24th  ;  and  it  would  have  been  perfectly  useless  on  the 
part  of  the  broker  to  explain  it  to  the  noble  company  in  the 


318  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

gold  room.  He,  therefore,  said  nothing  of  it,  having,  in  fact, 
no  time  to  lose  ;  but  he  kept  on  repeating  ''  150, 150,  .  .  . 
who  says  155?" 

Whilst  this  remarkable  catastrophe — to  nse  the  language 
of  tragic  writers — was  taking  place  in  the  gold  room,  it  is 
proper  to  inquire  what  was  occurring  at  the  same  time  at 
the  stock  exchange  ?  With  all  our  industry  we  cannot  find 
a  word  on  the  subject.  If,  on  that  eventful  day — 24th  Sep- 
tember— there  was  a  stock  exchange  at  all  in  New  York, 
the  fact  at  least  is  not  recorded.  Nobody  heard  of  it,  no- 
body spoke  of  it,  nobody,  surely,  ever  thought  of  going 
to  see  what  people  were  doing  in  it.  Nevertheless,  in  spite 
of  this,  the  reader  may  be  sure  that  stocks  fell,  even  with- 
out a  stock  exchange  at  all.  People  know  that  whenever 
gold  rises,  stocks  fall  sympatlietlcally^  as  authors  of  physi- 
ology say  often  of  our  bodily  organs.  It  is  easy  to  conjec- 
ture, from  all  this,  how  Mr.  Frederick  felt  in  the  midst  of 
those  untoward  circumstances. 

This  young  gentleman  had  been  remarked  yesterday  as 
considerably  puzzled  by  the  extraordinary  change  which 
took  place  in  the  afternoon.  The  whole  financial  ability  of 
New  York  had  been  suddenly  transferred  to  the  gold  room. 
Stocks  were  now  good  for  nothing,  or  at  least  they  were 
poorly  appreciated,  and  on  this  account,  probably,  fell  ra- 
pidly. Yet  Mr.  Frederick  was  loaded  with  them,  and  he 
had  not  as  yet  bestowed  any  of  his  attention  on  gold.  He 
timidly  began  to  purchase  it,  not  knowing  for  what  object, 
and  consequently  without  system,  and  thus  very  timidly 
indeed.  When  he  went  back  home  to  the  Great  Central 
Hotel,  he  found  that  immense  caravansary  of  fashion  and 
travel  all  in  an  uproar,  and  his  puzzle  was  very  suddenly 
and  very  rudely  explained.  Everybody  was  acquainted 
before  him  with  the  "corner  in  gold."  What  was  the 
meaning  of  all  this  ?  It  was  manifest  that  his  bosom  friend, 
Mr.  James  Friskey,  had  played  him  false ;  and  yet  he  had 
been  all  along  tlie  main  prop  of  his  hopes.  What  a  terri- 
ble discovery  !    He  must  have  an  interview  with  him. 

For  at  least  a  fortnight  he  had  found  it  impossible  to 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND  TEE  CRASH,  319 

engage  in  any  conversation  with  Mm.  The  reader  knows 
the  reason,  which  was,  unfortunately,  entirely  hidden  from 
Mr.  Frederick.  It  was  only  by  the  strictest  measures  of  se- 
crecy that  Mr.  Friskey  had  played  his  cards  so  well ;  and,  at 
this  moment,  he  was  in  ecstasy  at  the  success  of  his  plans  ; 
for  now  he  considered  them  as  completely  successful  with- 
out a  peradventure.  It  was,  therefore,  very  natural  in  him 
to  avoid,  as  much  as  possible,  any  long  talk  with  young  Kirk- 
bride.  Whenever  he  met  him  he  was  in  a  great  hurry,  could 
not  engage  at  present  in  conversation,  must  be  off  to  this  or 
that  place,  etc.  He  had,  however,  always  some  good  word 
to  utter,  and  some  pleasant  joke  to  crack.  He  occasionally 
said,  ''  Hope,  my  friend,  hope,  everything  is  going  on  well ; " 
and  this  was  so  far  encouraging.  But  he  never  gave  any 
direction  to  his  friend,  and  left  him,  as  completely  in  the 
lurch  as  he  was  before.  Mr.  Frederick,  consequently,  was 
bent  on  seeing  him  this  time,  and  inquired  eagerly  where  he 
could  see  him.  Nobody  could  give  him  any  information  on 
this  most  important  subject.  He  sent  his  flunky  of  a  valet 
— the  English  servant  who  had  replaced  Mr.  John  as  his 
footman — to  every  part  of  the  establishment  where  he  was 
likely  to  be,  but  could  get  no  news  of  the  whereabouts  of 
the  young  financier.  He  went  himself  to  the  head  clerk  of 
the  hotel,  who  "knew  that  Mr.  Friskey  was  out,  but  could 
not  say  at  what  time  of  the  night  he  would  return  to  his 
apartments."  Having,  finally,  personally  applied  to  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  establishment,  this  gentleman,  always  cour- 
teous and  desirous  of  gratifying  his  customers,  told  Mr. 
Frederick  that,  for  several  days,  he  had  not  seen  Mr.  Friskey 
except  occasionally  at  table.  He  knew  that  the  gentleman 
was  always  very  busy  and  on  the  move.  The  best  thing  Mr. 
Frederick  had  to  do  was  to  write  a  note  to  him,  which 
would  be  given  him  as  soon  as  he  came  home.  He  pledged 
himself  to  see  to  it.  The  note  must  have  been  certainly 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  gentleman  to  whom  it  was  ad- 
dressed, but  Mr.  Frederick  received  no  answer. 

Tlius,  having  spent  a  most  wretched  and  entirely  sleepless 
night,  he  scarcely  knew  what  determination  to  take,  and 


320  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

finally  made  up  his  mind,  almost  at  random,  to  convert  all 
his  cuiTency  into  gold,  as  soon  as  it  would  be  possible  the 
following  morning.  When  he  was  Just  stretching  himself 
on  his  bed  to  invite  sleep,  and  endeavoring  to  forget  his 
cares,  his  footman  came  to  tell  him  that  Mr.  John  was  at  the 
door  demanding  admittance. 

"Tell  him,"  said  the  irritable  young  man,  "that  I  am 
not  in,  and  shall  not  return  to-night.  On  this  you  must 
insist,  and  see  that  he  goes  away." 

John,  in  fact,  was  in  as  great  trouble  as  his  "  employer." 
A  word  on  the  subject  can  be,  to  a  certain  extent,  instructive, 
and  will  not  detain  us  long. 

He  had  not,  on  the  previous  afternoon,  dared  to  continue 
bidding  on  the  small  scale  which  at  first  excited  the  tit- 
tering laughter  of  his  neighbors.  He  was,  in  fact,  used 
up,  and  had  not  a  penny  he  could  call  his  own.  He  had 
consequently  been  growing  desperate  and  gloomy  in  the 
midst  of  the  passionate  crowd  which  surrounded  him.  Many 
projects  were  rapidly  passing  through  his  burning  brain. 
Mr.  Frederick  was  the  main  object  of  these  schemes ;  but 
there  were  also  plans  of  a  still  darker  nature  in  which  the 
young  gentleman  could  not  be  concerned.  The  sequel  of 
this  story  will  naturally  develop  some  of  them.  The  first 
thing  he  intended  to  do,  when  he  left  the  exchange,  was  to 
see  his  "  employer,"  reproach  him  with  being  the  cause  of 
his  actual  forlorn  condition,  and  require  from  him  more 
exorbitant  promises  of  a  higher  salary.  Before  doing  this, 
however,  he  must  see  some  friends  of  quite  a  different  class, 
with  whom  the  reader  has  been  already  acquainted  in  their 
dark  dens  and  recesses.  Some  new  plan  was  on  foot  which 
required  his  immediate  attention.  This  explains  why  he 
went  so  late  to  knock  at  the  door  of  his  former  master. 
We  know  how  he  was  received.  He  did  not  insist  on  being 
admitted  so  late  in  the  night ;  but  he  would  surely  demand 
and  obtain  an  interview  in  the  evening  of  the  following  day. 
When  the  morning  of  the  24th  came,  Mr.  Frederick  was  in 
such  low  spirits  and  so  fearfully  depressed,  that  it  was  with 
great  difficulty  that  he  got  out  of  bed  and  dressed  negli- 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND   THE  CRASH.  321 

gently.  He  went  forthwitli  to  take  some  breakfast,  which 
he  could  scarcely  touch,  and  then  for  the  first  time  remarked 
that  there  were  very  few  persons  around  him  at  the  table. 
Inquiring  the  cause  from  a  waiter,  he  was  greatly  surprised 
to  hear  that  nearly  all  the  inmates  of  the  hotel  had  taken, 
long  before,  their  first  meal,  and  that,  if  he  wished  to  go  to 
the  exchange  he  would  find  himself  late.  He  was  evidently 
becoming  dull  and  listless.  This  roused  him  up,  and  he 
started  to  go  down  town.  But  the  reader  is  already  ac- 
quainted ^\dth  the  state  of  affairs  in  Wall  Street ;  and  it  was 
very  near  nine  o'clock  when  Mr.  Frederick  reached  the 
outer  edge  of  the  crowd  in  the  open  air  such  as  it  has  been 
described.  He,  for  a  moment,  despaired  of  ever  entering 
*' the  sacred  precincts,"  and  was  going  to  give  up  the  at- 
tempt and  go  home  despondingly,  when  he  reflected  that 
this  was  his  last  chance.  He  had  not  made  arrangements 
with  any  broker,  as  it  was  very  late  the  night  before  that 
he  had  made  up  his  mind  what  policy  to  follow ;  and 
thus  he  had  personally  to  attend  to  his  own  affairs,  and  be 
at  the  headquarters  of  the  solemn  business,  that  is,  inside 
of  the  gold  room.  How  he  could  ever  arrive  at  the  outside 
wall ;  how  he  could  enter  the  blocked  and  really  invisible 
doors ;  how  he  could  find  room  for  himself  in  the  closely 
packed  interior,  is  a  mystery  which  it  would  be  as  impossi- 
ble for  us  to  explain,  as  it  is  for  an  unsophisticated  crowd  of 
simple  people  to  understand  how  a  common  street  wizard 
could  introduce  into  a  small  bottle  the  figure  of  a  man  which 
fills  it  entirely,  whilst  the  neck  of  the  bottle  is  not  large 
enough  to  let  the  arm  or  the  leg  of  the  figure  pass  through. 

He  at  last  succeeded ;  but  it  was  after  half- past  ten 
o'clock  that  he  found  himself  in  a  position  where  bidding 
was  possible.  We  fear  it  was  too  late  to  change  to  advan- 
tage his  currency  into  gold.  To  judge  of  it,  we  must  come 
back  to  the  first  bidding  of  the  ' '  sturdy  broker  with  eyes 
flaming  like  diamonds."  He  had  said,  the  reader  remem- 
bers, "150  for  five  millions  of  gold  !  150,  150,  150,  who  says 
155?" 

The  bears  tried  at  first  to  struggle,  and  to  prevent  any- 
21 


322  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

body  from  going  it  at  155.  It  was  a  matter  of  life  and  death 
for  them.  They  had  sold  all  their  gold.  They  did  not  ex- 
pect to  see  any  of  it  coming  from  the  Treasury  at  Washing- 
ton, after  the  positive  refusals  of  Mr.  Bout  well  the  previ- 
ous afternoon.  If  once  a  single  bid  were  made  by  any  one 
in  the  crowd,  there  would  be  such  an  excitement  among 
them,  that  they  would  all  bite  fearfully,  and  bid,  and  bid 
again,  and  raise,  and  raise  the  price,  and  thus  fill  the  purse 
of  the  clique  by  the  universal  depletion  of  the  purses  of  the 
whole  community.  To  be  convinced  that  this  fear  was  not 
exaggerated,  any  one  has  only  to  remember  what  he  wit- 
nessed in  his  boyhood,  when  he  was  fishing  for  frogs  or 
minnows.  The  great  difficulty  was  to  get  the  first  one  to 
bite  ;  but  as  soon  as  this  happened,  the  pond,  if  there  was 
question  of  frogs,  the  river  if  there  was  question  of  fish, 
was  directly  fairly  alive  with  the  innumerable  foolish  ba- 
trachians  or  small  fry,  every  one  of  them  trying  his  best  to 
be  caught  first.  The  bears,  however,  could  not  long  delay 
the  fatal  moment.  Some  one  unaccountably  pronounced 
the  magic  number,  155  ;  then  there  was  no  more  any  limit 
ascertainable  where  the  foolish  gulls  would  stop.  Here  the 
papers  of  the  day  positively  mentioned  that  the  scene  could 
not  be  described.  There  were  "gesticulations,"  "out- 
cries," "yells,"  "frantic  stamping  of  feet;"  "perspira- 
tion ran  from  all  those  wild  foreheads,  and  coursed  down 
along  those  Avan  and  unkempt  faces  ;  "  "the  nervous  excite- 
ment was  frightful,"  and  "the  massive  edifice  appeared  to 
shake  as  if  there  had  been  an  earthquake,  caused  by  the 
bubbling  up  of  vapor  in  the  interior  regions."  It  looked 
as  if  it  might  be  feared,  indeed,  that  at  least  half  the  num- 
ber of  those  present  would  turn  out  madmen  before  the 
sitting  was  over. 

When  Mr.  Frederick  arrived,  gold  had  reached  160,  and 
was  soon  to  go  up  much  higher.  Was  there  any  great 
chance  for  him  of  at  once  making  his  fortune  by  converting 
his  fast-falling  currency  into  a  metallic  standard  of  value 
going  up  so  fast?  The  pro})ability  of  it  we  leave  to  the 
reader  to  calculate.     The  fate  of  an  individual,  however, 


BLACK  FBIDAY  AND   THE  CRASH.  323 

seems  of  no  account  when  compared  with  the  desperate 
condition  of  the  whole  city  of  New  York,  which  could  not 
but  be  frightfully  agitated  by  all  the  circumstances  just 
described.  The  present  pale  sketch  of  it  cannot  give  any 
idea  of  the  reality  as  it  then  was,  and  as  it  soon  became 
known  to  all  the  citizens.  Extras  were  certainly  published 
at  every  moment,  but  they  were  not  such  faithful  conveyers 
of  the  news  as  the  magic  photography  of  those  who  had 
seen  something  of  it,  and  described  it  to  others  by  their 
gestures,  their  looks,  their  attitude,  and  deep -meaning 
words.  The  fact  is,  that  toward  noon,  the  whole  commerce 
of  the  greatest  emporium  of  North  America  was  suddenly 
suspended,  as  no  one  could  think  of  buying  and  selling,  on 
that  day,  anything  but  gold.  This  remarkable  feature  of 
the  whole  phenomenon  deserves  to  be  studied  somewhat  at 
leisure. 

As  if  there  had  been  an  interchange  of  opinion  on  the 
subject  among  the  merchants  of  New  York,  toward  noon, 
all,  on  a  sudden,  left  their  places  of  business  to  go  to  the 
exchange,  if  they  could.  Each  of  them  left  his  counting- 
room  to  the  care  of  a  few  clerks  and  employees,  and  went 
for  the  purpose  of  looking  for  news.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
they  reflected  deeply  on  the  subject,  on  their  way  down  and 
back  again ;  and  that  they  afterward  communicated  their 
reflections  to  their  children  for  their  great  future  benefit. 
The  immense  prosperity  of  New  York  has  certainly  been 
mainly  promoted  by  the  development  of  her  foreign  and 
domestic  trade.  It  is  her  admirable  situation  for  it,  joined 
with  the  activity,  honesty,  and  skill  of  her  inhabitants, 
which  has  raised  her  to  her  proud  position.  At  the  epoch 
which  we  endeavor  to  describe,  an  effort  was  being  made  to 
open  for  her  a  new  way  of  building  up  immense  fortunes, 
namely,  gambling  at  the  stock  exchange.  There  could  not 
be  a  better  occasion  to  compare  both  ways  of  making  money 
than  the  present  one.  The  reader  has  seen  under  what 
light  Mr.  Frederick,  a  young  gentleman  of  great  activity 
and  mind,  had  considered  the  present  question,  and  for 
what  motive  he  had  decided  to  abandon  commerce  and  take 


324  LOUISA  ELREBRIDE. 

to  stock  gambling  as  Ms  profession.  There  will  be  always 
some  danger  that  other  young  men  may  be  induced  to  take 
the  same  false  step  for  the  same  reasons,  or  for  some  other 
analogous  to  them.  Now  is  the  time  to  reach  a  fair  solu- 
tion of  the  question.  We  are  glad,  therefore,  to  see  the 
merchants  of  New  York  leaving  their  counting-rooms  and 
treading  their  way  toward  the  brilliant  Temple  of  Plutus. 
It  would  have  been  better  still,  had  they  taken  their  boys 
vdt\\  them  to  give  them  an  eyesight  of  the  Pandemonium 
itself.  Few  of  them,  however,  could  reach  it,  and  thus 
they  were  reduced  to  hear  what  was  said  in  the  crowd 
about  the  great  events  transpiring  inside  of  the  public 
edifice. 

But,  as  the  whole  city  was  entirely  absorbed  by  these 
mighty  operations,  and  trade  itself,  either  wholesale  or  re- 
tail, was  entirely  suspended,  it  was  proper,  it  seems,  not  to 
leave  the  citizens  at  the  mercy  of  rumor,  and  to  give  them 
all  a  chance  of  receiving  official  communications  from  the 
exchange.  An  enterprising  body  of  men,  consequently,  had 
in  an  hour  or  two  established  communication  by  telegraph 
between  the  all-absorbing  centre,  and  various  points  in  the 
city.  In  those  blessed  spots  dials  had  been  placed  exactly 
on  the  pattern  of  the  great  dial  mentioned  before,  which 
everybody  in  the  interior  of  the  exchange  consulted  con- 
stantly to  know  the  ups  and  downs  of  the  game.  By  this 
very  simple  contrivance,  the  whole  city  of  New  York  may 
be  said  to  have  been  converted  into  a  huge  gambling  hell. 
We  have  not  read,  it  is  true,  in  any  paper  of  the  day,  that 
any  one  could  bid  by  telegraph  from  any  of  these  points 
in  the  city  itself  ;  and  an  ordinary  inquirer  may  be  at  lib- 
erty to  believe  that  those  numerous  dials  had  been  erected 
solely  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  New-Yorkers.  AYe  are 
not,  nevertheless,  perfectly  satisfied  on  this  point,  and  it 
would  appear  to  us  very  strange  that  such  trouble  should 
have  been  taken  for  the  erection  of  so  many  precious  little 
machines  for  the  sole  view  of  gratifying  idle  curiosity. 
Every  one  can  form  his  judgment  on  the  subject.  But,  at 
any  rate,  this  curiosity  itself  was  the  natural  offspring  of  a 


BLACK  FBIDAY  AND  THE  CRASH.  325 

deep  gambling  inclination  ;  and  it  can  be  believed,  without 
great  fear  of  error,  that  the  eyes  which  looked  on  those 
dials — there  were  everywhere  great  crowds  around  them — 
were  in  reality  inflamed  with  the  fire  of  the  gambling 
mania ;  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  they  also  ' '  glittered 
like  diamonds,"  after  the  fashion  of  the  well-known 
"  sturdy  broker,  not  unfriendly  to  the  clique." 

All  the  previous  details,  which  are  historic,  mind  you, 
which  are  not  drawn  from  fancy,  but  can  be  read  in  all  the 
papers  of  that  ominous  Friday,  ^Aith  many  others  of  great 
import  likewdse,  but  necessarily  omitted  for  the  sake  of 
brevity  ;  all  these  details  absolutely  demonstrate  the  re- 
mark, made  anteriorly,  that,  since  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  nothing  of  the  kind  had  ever  taken  place  anywhere 
on  earth.  The  former  ancient  worship  of  Mammon  by  the 
Oriental  idolaters  of  Phoenicia,  was  a  mere  childish  affair 
compared  to  this ;  the  avidity  of  the  Jews  for  money,  al- 
though proverbial  enough,  and  confidently  relied  upon  by 
all  writers  of  history  or  romance,  was  a  dull  sentiment  in 
comparison  with  this  astounding  madness  ;  the  supposed 
greed  of  monopolists  all  over  the  world — intent,  it  is  said, 
on  accumulating  in  their  wareliouses  the  total  amount  of 
some  particular  kind  of  goods  or  merchandise  in  order  to 
make  everybody  pay  dearly  for  it — is  only  a  private  affair, 
a  dealing  with  individuals,  consequently  successive,  and,  re- 
quiring a  long  time,  has  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  this 
huge  boiling  caldron,  bubbling  up  and  gushing  forth,  and 
pouring  over  the  whole  surface  of  Manhattan  Island  the 
loathsome  stream  of  avarice  and  greed.  But  it  is  time  to 
record  some  of  its  doings  in  detail,  and  not  to  stop  at  mere 
generalities. 

From  160  the  price  of  gold  had  been  going  up  to  165,  170, 
180  at  last ;  everybody  expected  it  would  reach  200  before 
the  evening.  It  was  seldom  that  any  bid  was  confined 
within  the  limits  of  a  single  million.  We  have  seen  that 
the  '^ sturdy  broker"  started  with  one  of  fiYe  millions; 
many  afterward  reached  much  higher.  And  it  must  have 
been  so,  since  it  was  calculated  later  that  "the  amount  of 


326  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

gold  bought  and  sold  on  Black  Friday  alone  exceeded 
$800,000,000.  Think  of  this  ?  This  was  "  calculated  later 
on  ;"  for  Registrar  Mersereau  found  it  impossible  on  that 
day  to  keep  his  index  of  accounts  without  much  additional 
clerical  labor,  and  he  could  not  make  it  known  publicly  ex- 
cept several  days  afterward.  The  fluctuations  of  the  mar- 
ket alone,  on  this  day,  occupied  twelve  folio  columns  of  the 
big  index. 

The  enormous  sum  of  800,000,000  of  dollars,  indicating 
the  operations  of  the  day,  had  no  other  metallic  basis  than 
30,000,000  at  most.  It  is  easy  to  judge  from  this  that  cash 
could  not  be  thought  of  in  the  settling  of  accounts  and 
adjusting  the  losses  and  gains.  Nothing  can  prove  more 
conclusively  than  those  figures  that  the  whole  affair  was  a 
throw  of  dice,  and  could  not  receive  a  more  appropriate 
name  than  gambling.  Meanwhile,  the  Friskey  clique  was 
piling  up  mountains  of  profits.  What  would  be  the  num- 
ber of  their  victims  at  the  end  of  the  day  ?  Failures,  sus- 
pensions, bankruptcies,  which  could  not  yet  be  calculated, 
would  follow,  as  certain  as  fate.  Of  this  mass  of  losing  men 
only  two  or  three  can  interest  the  reader,  and  the  final  de- 
cision for  them  will  not  be  long  delayed.  It  is,  however, 
still  hanging  in  the  balance,  and  the  last  word  on  the  sub- 
ject cannot  yet  be  said.  There  is,  for  instance,  Mr.  Frede- 
rick, who  began  very  late  to  sell  his  currency  for  gold.  But 
he  bought  at  160,  and  it  is  now  on  the  way  to  180.  The 
young  gentleman  may  consequently  save  a  good  part  of  his 
capital  ;  and  if  gold  reaches  200,  as  everybody  expects,  he 
may  not  be,  after  all,  a  great  loser,  in  spite  of  his  former 
heavy  losses  on  stocks.  Early  in  the  afternoon,  therefore, 
the  young  gentleman  was  highly  elated,  and  his  former 
great  friend,  James  Friskey,  grew  hugely  in  his  estimation. 
Let  him  enjoy  his  luck  for  a  few  moments  longer. 

Meanwhile,  however,  an  immense  cry  of  distress  arose 
from  all  the  New-Yorkers  who  had  not  been  deprived  of 
their  senses.  Ruin  was  staring  in  the  face  all  classes  of 
society,  and  there  could  be  no  relief  except  from  the  Wash- 
ington Government.     Mr.  Boutwell  had  steadily  refused, 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND   THE  CRASH.  327 

the  previous  day,  to  listen  to  all  applications  of  this  kind. 
They  continued  to  pour  in  upon  him,  and  their  number 
increased  every  moment.  He  answered  them  all,  that  his 
hands  were  bound  by  the  law.  He  could  not  throw  on  the 
market  but  the  amount  of  gold  Congress  had  authorized 
him  to  sell.  To  do  more,  under  his  own  responsibility,  was 
altogether  beyond  his  power.  It  seemed,  therefore,  that  the 
clique's  interest  was  sure  to  win,  and  to  build  up  an  im- 
mense edifice  of  wealth  on  the  ruins  of  the  private  fortunes 
of  thousands.  But  finally  those  who  had  written  so  frequent- 
ly to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  turned  at  last  toward 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and,  after  urgent  solici- 
tations, the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Union,  unable  to  engage 
Mr.  Boutwell  to  act  officially,  in  his  capacity  of  guardian  of 
the  treasury,  took,  at  last,  the  responsibility  upon  himself. 
He  simply  wrote  to  the  secretary:  "Sell  four  millions  of 
gold  to-morrow,  and  buy  four  millions  bonds ;  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  break  '  that  corner.'  " 

As  soon  as  the  news  reached  Xew  York,  there  was  a  uni- 
versal stampede  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  loaded  them- 
selves with  gold,  and  this  highly  esteemed  commodity  went 
do^Ti  more  rapidly  than  it  had  gone  up  during  the  fore- 
noon. It  was  soon  at  135.  This  could  not  have  happened 
if  the  clique  had  been  able  to  buy  these  new  ' '  four  mil- 
lions." But  they  found  it  absolutely  impossible.  They  had 
gathered  all  their  strength  to  rake  up  the  twenty  or  thirty 
millions  of  coin  contained  in  the  vaults  of  the  public  money- 
institutions  of  the  State.  They  could  not  perform  the  same 
operation  on  the  small  additional  lump  sent  on  from  Wash- 
ington. Thus  all  their  scheme  failed  just  at  the  moment  it 
appeared  to  have  succeeded,  and  New  York  was  instantly 
relieved  by  an  indifferent  dribbling,  dropping  from  the  pub- 
lic vaults  of  the  Caj)itol. 

The  sketch  just  drawn  out  is  simply  the  result  of  com- 
bining together  all  the  apparent  and  visible  causes  and  inci- 
dents of  the  great  explosion  known  as  Black  Friday.  There 
was,  subsequently,  an  investigation  before  Congress,  where 
it  was  attempted  to  unravel  the  mysteries  of  this  gTeat  affair. 


328  LOUISA  KIUKBRIDE. 

But,  after  all,  what  could  the  committee  appointed  by  Con- 
gress find  out  about  the  object  of  its  investigation  1  Nothing 
but  what  the  witnesses  examined  by  the  committee  chose  to 
tell.  According  to  the  rule  of  such  inquiries,  it  is  admit- 
ted that  no  witness  on  the  stand  and  under  oath  is  obliged 
to  answer  anything  which  might  criminate  himself.  With 
such  a  rule  as  this,  it  is  better  still  to  rely  on  the  apparent 
and  visible  causes  of  the  whole  affair,  than  on  the  testimony 
of  the  most  unexceptionable  witnesses.  It  has  been  thought, 
therefore,  useless  to  look  into  the  "authentic  reports"  of 
this  renowned  investigation.  For  the  same  reason,  like- 
wise, there  is  no  need  of  inquiring  how  many  suspensions, 
failures,  bankruptcies,  were  the  consequence  of  Black  Fri- 
day. Many  of  them  could  not  be  ascertained  but  long 
after ;  and,  moreover,  they  have  scarcely  any  bearing  on 
the  present  purpose,  with  the  exception  of  the  personages 
whose  biography  the  reader  is  perusing,  and  to  whom  he 
will  be  presently  brought  back. 

A  single  item,  however,  illustrating  some  of  the  private 
transactions  of  Black  Friday,  is  culled  from  the  papers  of 
the  epoch,  and  deserves  to  be  kept  for  posterity :  "  Sm.  G. 
M.  &  Co.'s  transactions  on  Friday,  September  24th,  as  made 
up  by  the  clearing  committee  of  the  gold  exchange,  from 
tickets  in  the  hands  of  dealers,  amounted  to  a  total  sum  of 
gold  bought  by  the  firm  on  tJiat  day,  $20,650,000,  and  of 
gold  sold  or  loaned  by  the  same  firm,  $7,499,000,  leaving 
them  long^  $13,151,000."  This  was  one  of  the  firms  con- 
nected with  the  clique,  and  the  simple  exhibit  thereof  gives 
a  curious  insight  into  its  operations  on  that  momentous 
day.  If  all  their  dealings  had  been  confined  to  this  firm, 
they  would  have  been,  in  the  end,  heavy  losers ;  but  they 
may  have  redeemed  themselves  in  some  other  quarters. 
The  interesting  question,  however,  how  far  the  clique  was 
successful,  remains  to  this  day  an  insoluble  question,  at 
least  for  us. 

But  we  know  more  of  the  transactions  of  some  indivi- 
duals in  whom  the  reader  naturally  takes  greater  interest. 
What  of  Mr.  O'Tee,  for  instance?     The  determination  of 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND  THE  CBASH.  339 

Ids  fate  on  that  day  was  foreshadowed  many  pages  back ; 
and  it  was  formally  announced  that  it  would  be  forever  de- 
cided. It  is  time  to  redeem  this  promise.  Mr.  O'Tee  had 
been  an  early  antagonist  of  Mr.  Frederick.  The  passes  at 
arms  between  these  two  gentlemen  have  not  been  forgotten 
by  the  reader ;  and,  in  general,  everybody  must  remem- 
ber it,  the  former  was  more  successful  than  the  latter.  In 
the  skirmishes  between  both  of  them,  which  occurred  in 
anticipation  of  the  great  day,  Mr.  O'Tee  had  found  a  large 
following,  among  the  Wall  Street  brokers,  to  combine 
against  the  preposterousness  of  the  heir  of  the  Kirkbrides, 
and  this  unfortunate  young  man  had  often  seen  some 
slice  or  other  of  his  ' '  large  capital ' '  gobbled  up  by  the 
greedy  worshipers  of  shares  and  stocks.  Mr.  O'Tee  had 
thus  been  provided — besides  his  previous  windfalls — with 
the  means  of  carrying  on  a  prosperous  warfare  against  his 
chief  antagonist  and  some  other  ' '  players  at  the  game  of 
chance."  There  was  no  time  for  mentioning  it  in  the  gen- 
eral narrative  of  the  great  manoeuvres  on  the  field  of  battle 
during  the  memorable  days  of  the  21st,  22d,  and  23d  of  Sep- 
tember. But  the  operations  of  Mr.  O'Tee  in  stocks  were 
occasionally  splendid,  sometimes  less  lucky,  on  the  whole 
profitable,  during  those  three  memorable  engagements  be- 
tween the  opposite  camps  on  the  stage  of  the  exchange. 

Unfortunately,  he  was,  no  more  than  Mr.  Frederick,  in 
the  secret  of  the  powerful  clique.  He  stuck  all  the  time  to 
stocks,  because  stocks  had  been  the  dream  of  his  youth, 
the  god  of  his  manhood,  and  he  thought  they  were  to  be 
the  felicity  of  his  old  age.  He  had,  therefore,  fallen  into 
the  fatal  mistake  of  Mr.  Frederick,  and  loaded  himself  with 
stocks,  with  an  always  increasing  avidity,  until,  as  the 
reader  remembers,  ''the  whole  activity  of  the  stock  ex- 
change was  suddenly  transferred  to  the  gold  room,"  during 
the  afternoon  of  Wednesday,  we  believe.  This  was,  for  him, 
a  great  puzzle,  an  inconceivable  puzzle.  He  was  so  much 
bewildered  that  he  did  not  leave  his  well-known  seat,  and 
remained  one  of  the  few  fast  friends  of  railroad  shares  on 
the  almost  empty  benches  of  the  stock  exchange.    He  took 


330  LOUISA  EmEBRLDE. 

some  information,  but  could  learn  only  that  there  were 
some  strange  doings  in  the  gold  room.  IsTo  one  knew  what 
it  meant.  At  the  closing  of  the  board,  he  merely  went 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  new  shrine  erected  to  the 
''golden  calf ; "  but  the  operations  for  the  day  were  just 
being  closed.  ''The  excitement  had  been  great  between  the 
bulls  and  bears,  and  promised  to  be  still  greater  the  follow- 
ing day."  This  is  all  he  could  learn.  He  therefore  went 
home,  and  began  to  reflect.  Was  it  safe  to  buy  gold  at 
this  moment  ?  And  then,  what  to  do  with  it  ?  It  was  just 
the  reflection  which  had  puzzled  Mr.  Frederick  earlier  in 
the  day,  which  he  was  trying  to  unravel  at  the  Great  Cen- 
tral Hotel  at  this  very  moment,  and  which  was  to  occupy 
his  mind  the  whole  of  the  follo^dng  Thursday. 

Mr.  O'Tee  was  still  more  timid  than  Mr.  Frederick,  al- 
though we  know  that  this  young  gentleman  sinned  deeply 
by  timidity  on  that  occasion.  He — O'Tee — only  made  up 
his  mind  not  to  move — that  is,  not  to  bite  at  the  gold — 
until  he  positively  knew  what  was  at  the  bottom  of  this 
extraordinary  change  in  the  great  temple  of  wealth.  He 
had  in  his  possession  something  tangible,  a  large  amount  of 
stocks  and  shares.  These  splendidly  engraved  papers  rep- 
resented the  value  of  railroads  in  open  existence  and  full 
activity.  He  knew,  or  thought  he  knew,  all  the  mysteries 
of  their  goings  up  and  down.  He  had  studied  these  en- 
trancing operations  all  his  life.  He  had,  on  the  contrary, 
ever  been  persuaded  that  gold  was  good  chiefly  for  mer- 
chants ;  and  very  seldom,  indeed,  had  he  handled  it  in  the 
long  list  of  his  transactions  during  so  many  years  of  active 
life  in  Wall  Street.     Therefore,  he  would  not  touch  gold. 

He  felt,  no  doubt,  instinctively,  that,  since  gold  was  going 
up,  stocks  were  going  down.  But  he  thought  this  would  not 
last  long,  and  things  would  return  to  their  long-accustomed 
channels.  Besides,  he  might  deal  in  gold.  He  might  do  so 
the  following  morning,  but  before  doing  it,  he  must  know 
the  mystery  involved  in  the  singular  affair  at  the  gold  room. 
On  this  last  reflection  he  went  to  bed  and  tried  to  sleep. 

On  Thursday  morning  he  was  early  at  the  exchange ; 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND   THE  CRASH.  33I 

went  this  time  to  the  centre  of  all  attractions — the  stock  ex- 
change, in  fact,  was  deserted — and  unable,  by  asking,  to 
obtain  any  information  on  the  mighty  subject,  he  remained 
a  passive  spectator  of  the  furious  contest  between  the  bulls 
and  bears.  The  excitement  was  already  intense.  There  is 
no  need  of  describing,  again,  the  scene  he  witnessed.  But 
it  is  important  to  know  the  way  his  thoughts  were  run- 
ning. He  had  never  been  associated  with  the  clique^  but 
was  in  frequent  communication  with  many  of  the  bears. 
He  heard  from  some  of  these  that  their  system  of  operation 
was  sure  to  win.  By  selling  their  gold,  as  they  did  furi- 
ously, they  were  loading  with  it  the  bulls  who  would  soon 
break  down  under  the  crushing  weight.  O'Tee  became  con- 
vinced that  this  was  true.  ^N'either  he,  nor  any  of  his 
friends,  knew  yet  anything  of  the  ''comer  in  gold,"  and 
thus  they  went  on  in  their  mad  career,  completely  infatu- 
ated by  their  idea.  The  Irish  broker  had  no  gold  to  sell, 
and  thus  he  avoided  the  fatal  mistake  of  the  bears,  who 
were  positively  helping  on  the  bulls  in  their  projects.  But 
he  made  a  blunder  as  fatal  to  himself,  by  not  buying  gold, 
and  keeping  in  his  hand  a  depreciating  paper  which  would 
soon  be  almost  valueless.  In  this  he  acted  perfectly  up 
to  his  native  leaning,  without  knowing  it.  For,  being  by 
nature  an  Irishman,  he  was  by  nature  a  blunderer.  It  has 
been  said  repeatedly,  that  if  there  are  twenty  ways  of  doing 
anything  in  a  simple  and  reasonable  manner,  and  but  one 
way  of  doing  it  awkwardly,  the  true  Irishman  will  invaria- 
bly choose  this  last  one.  There  were  not  twenty  ways  of 
protecting  himself  in  this  present  affair,  but  there  was  at 
least  one,  so  clear  and  urgent,  that  Mr.  Frederick  had  seen 
it,  and  had  commenced  somewhat  early  to  buy  gokl,  al- 
though very  timidly.  Mr.  O'Tee,  however,  during  the 
whole  of  this  fatal  Thursday,  had  not  the  least  inkling  of 
it.  He  was  waiting  for  "a  turn "  in  the  policy  of  the  bears 
to  join  them  in  the  fray ;  and  the  reader  knows  that  this 
''turn  "  came  only  when  the  news  arrived  from  Washing- 
ton of  the  sale  by  the  Government  of  four  millions  of  gold. 
It  was  too  late  to  save  Mr.  O'Tee. 


332  LOUISA  KLRKBRIDE, 

His  inactivity  continued  to  the  end;  and  it  was  just  a 
couple  of  hours  before  the  news  came  from  Washington 
that  he  saw  his  mistake,  and,  to  correct  it  quicker,  he  went 
to  the  opposite  extreme,  and  fell  into  a  worse  blunder  by 
the  impulsive  wish  of  correcting  the  first.  He  just  sold,  at 
once,  all  his  stocks  for  gold,  when  gold  was  at  its  highest, 
and  scarcely  an  hour  before  it  began  to  tumble  down,  as  we 
know  it  did.  The  blundering  Irish  broker  having  operated 
by  margins,  and  not  in  cash,  he  found  himself  in  the  end 
as  penniless  as  was  "honest "  John.  To  preclude  the  neces- 
sity of  mentioning  any  more  his  name,  it  mil  suffice  to  say  a 
few  words  of  his  interesting  career  after  Black  Friday.  He 
was  a  broker,  but  at  all  times  he  had  very  few  customers, 
who  all  sank  with  him  on  that  memorable  occasion.  For  a 
long  while  previously,  his  chief  transactions  had  been  on 
his  own  account.  He  might,  therefore,  continue  to  specu- 
late, and  employ  his  unexceptionable  ability  in  retrieving  his 
fortune.  He  tried  it,  but  having  had  bad  luck,  his  first  ven- 
tures deprived  him  even  of  some  collateral  security  he  had, 
by  hook  and  crook,  obtained.  He  was  forced,  completely, 
to  abandon  his  proud  position  at  the  stock  exchange,  and 
leave  unoccupied  by  his  precious  person  the  well-known 
place  where  he  had  been  so  long  conspicuous.  After  having 
tried  several  occupations,  each  of  them  marked  by  a  lower 
step  on  the  financial  ladder,  he  had  finally  to  come  to 
the  last  shift  of  men  of  his  stamp.  He  opened  an  intelli- 
gence office  in  some  of  the  lower  wards  of  the  city.  If  any 
of  our  readers  were  absolutely  idle,  and  reduced  to  lose 
their  time  in  some  bootless  inquiry  or  other,  they  might 
find  him,  at  this  very  moment,  occasionally  receiving  a 
single  dollar  from  an  Irish  or  German  servant,  after  having 
succeeded  in  finding  him  a  place. 

Mr.  Jolm,  on  Black  Friday,  was  invisible  in  the  gold 
room,  where  it  was,  in  fact,  absolutely  useless  for  him  to  go. 
But  he  was  very  busy  with  some  friends  of  his  own,  not 
unknown  to  us.  His  purse  being  dry,  he  wished,  anyhow, 
to  open  for  it  some  stray  stream  of  wealth,  which  the  laws 
of  the  country,  however,  did  not  permit  him  to  bring  in  the 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND  TEE  CRASH.  333 

direction  he  liked.  The  next  chapter  will  give  us  an  ink- 
ling of  it,  after  that  hot  interview  with  Mr.  Frederick, 
which  he  had  made  np  his  mind,  the  xjrevious  night,  to  ob- 
tain for  this  very  evening.  But  this  interview,  and  the  fate 
of  Mr.  Frederick  himself,  must  be  delayed  for  a  moment, 
and  reserved  for  the  next  chapter.  The  remainder  of  this 
must  be  occupied  by  some  serious  reflections  on  this  black 
day,  the  remembrance  of  which  must  be  kept  in  the  memory 
of  all  future  Americans.  Some  readers,  in  perusing  the  nar- 
rative, may  haye  thought  that  we  considered  it  altogether  in 
a  flimsy  and  ludicrous  point  of  view ;  that  our  intention  was 
to  make  people  laugh  at  it,  and  at  best,  to  assign  to  it  the 
simple  task  given  to  comedy  in  the  old  dramatic  adage: 
ridendo  corriglt  mores.  This  was  not  the  adequate  idea  we 
wished  to  give  of  it.  IN'o  doubt,  it  is  proper  to  show  to  the 
multitude,  that  often  in  thek  furious  activity  and  most 
earnest  endeavors,  there  is  something  extremely  ludicrous, 
which  comedy  and  satire  may  use  to  produce  a  wholesome 
effect.  But  on  the  present  occasion,  we  would  not  rest  on 
such  a  secondary  and  low  aim.  The  truth  must  be  said  in 
its  simplicity  and  force,  so  as  to  strike  the  listener,  and  ex- 
cite his  deep  attention  without  acting  in  the  least  on  his 
risible  organs. 

As  of  all  unholy  passions,  so  it  can  be  said  of  the  inordi- 
nate pursuit  of  gold,  that  it  deprives  man  of  his  reason, 
closes  his  eyes  to  every  rational  prospect,  deafens  his  ears 
to  the  most  forcible  advice,  and  makes  of  him  a  puppet, 
moved  at  random  by  violent  jerks  which  cannot  be  called 
life.  Eemember  the  details  sketched  in  the  previous  narra- 
tive. They  were  not  drawn  from  fancy  ;  but  they  merely 
embodied  the  chief  news  of  the  day.  They  did  not  come  up 
even  to  the  naked  truth  ;  because,  on  such  mighty  subjects, 
the  naked  truth  is  positively  unattainable  by  the  narrator, 
particularly  if  he  were  not  present,  and  only  transcribes 
from  faithful  records  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  frantic 
story.  The  sketches  contained  in  the  papers  of  that  day 
are  far  more  highly  colored  and  piquantly  spiced  than  our 
own  pale  record  ;  because  they  were  made  on  the  spot,  and 


334  LOUISA  KntEBRLDE. 

directly  after  the  occurrence  of  the  events.  But  the  narra- 
tive just  given  out  "wdll  suJfice  for  all  practical  purposes. 
Let  every  one  remember  it,  and  say  if  the  people  of  New 
York  were  not  then  crazy. 

Look  at  this  favored  country,  with  every  possible  means 
for  all  of  reaching  a  most  enviable  position  in  life,  or  at  least 
a  comfortable  situation,  or  most  undoubtedly  a  competency. 
All  careers  are  open,  all  reasonable  aspkations  can  be  ful- 
filled. Have  you  great  talent  ?  you  can  reach  a  high  round 
of  the  ladder.  Is  your  ability  ordinary  ?  you  are  sure,  at 
least,  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  with  some  of  its  super- 
fluities. "No  pent-up  Utica  confines  our  powers:  The 
whole  continent  is  ours."  Not  to  indulge  in  exaggeration, 
see  in  concreto  the  population  of  this  country. 

Setting  aside  the  lately  arrived  immigrants,  or  those 
who,  born  in  foreign  regions,  could  not  adapt  themselves  to 
this  one ;  disregarding  also  the  wretched  small  minority  of 
the  indigenous  population,  who,  deprived  apparently  of  all 
sense,  rush  into  fatal  excesses,  and  perish  before  they  reach 
manhood ;  say  whether  the  great  mass  of  the  people  ought 
not  to  be  content,  each  class  in  its  own  sphere. 

Until  lately  it  had  been  so  ;  and  the  Americans  boasted 
with  justice  that  they  inhabited  a  prosperous  land  where 
every  one  might  be  happy.  Look  at  all  our  cities,  they 
could  say  ;  not  alone  the  largest,  as  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, but  all  those  which  contain  a  population  of  thirty 
thousand  and  upwards,  and  count  the  great  merchants, 
manufacturers,  rich  capitalists  they  contain.  See  also  the 
immense  multitude  of  retailers,  petty  dealers,  jobbers,  etc., 
mentioned  in  the  several  directories  of  those  cities,  all 
enjoying  the  advantages  of  a  prosperous  trade.  Pass  in 
review  the  numberless  army  of  skilled  workmen  and  of 
agriculturists  in  the  country.  Without  carrying  on  the 
catalogue  to  the  length  it  might  reach,  say  if,  anywhere  in 
Europe,  except  perhaps  in  a  part  of  England,  anything  of 
the  kind  can  be  witnessed.  Have  you  not  besides  the  almost 
limitless  country  of  the  Far  West,  where  millions  of  home- 
steads can  yet  be  carved  out  ?    How  many  legitimate  enter- 


BLACK  FRIDAY  AND   THE  CRASH.  335 

prises  can  be  put  on  foot  and  started  on  without  touching 
what  is  illegitimate  and  problematical  ?  Mind  that  we  only 
insist  on  mere  worldly  considerations,  and  do  not  say  a  word 
of  conscience  and  duty,  of  morality  and  holy  feelings,  of 
God  and  religion. 

Yet  it  was  in  the  midst  of  such  circumstances  as  these 
that  an  absurd  mania  had  seized  on  a  part  of  this  happy 
people.  A  number  of  them  wished  to  suddenly  become 
immensely  rich,  without  labor,  without  almost  any  effort, 
by  the  mere  magic  of  gambling  ;  as  if  anything  healthy  and 
leading  to  happiness  for  the  nation,  and  for  each  individual 
composing  it,  could  be  the  result  of  madness  and  folly. 
Nothing,  in  fact,  could  come  out  of  it,  except  ruin  and 
desolation.  The  thing  even  could  not  be  attempted  with- 
out at  once  depriving  all  the  victims  of  this  delusion,  of 
their  conscience,  of  then-  moral  nature,  nay,  of  their  simple 
good  sense,  and  rational  faculties. 

On  this  account,  the  events  of  that  deplorable  day  can  be 
made  profitable  to  men  actually  living  and  to  theu'  children 
''to  the  fourth  generation,"  by  showing  in  vivid,  although 
true  colors,  the  depth  of  the  abyss  illumined  a  moment  by 
the  glare  of  this  phantasmagoria.  Remember  well,  all  of 
you  who  have  been  present  at  the  solemn  affair,  or  at  least 
who  have  lived  at  the  time,  and  read  some  faithful  account 
of  it,  that  prosperity  and  real  wealth  cannot  possibly  be 
solidly  amassed  and  built  up  by  discordant  cries  and  wild 
speculations.  Reflect  chiefly  ui)on  this  old  adage,  whose 
very  words,  however,  we  do  not  remember :  that  "  whatever 
comes  at  the  sound  of  the  flute  goes  away  at  the  beating  of 
the  drum."  But,  since  you  are  yet  Christians,  or  at  least 
most  of  you,  to  their  honor,  profess  to  be,  ponder  deeply  on 
the  solemn  words  of  David  :  '' Nisi  Dominus  cud ificaverit 
domum  in  vanzim  laboraverunt  qui  cedificant  eam^  The 
meaning  of  which  is  simply  this :  Whenever  any  nation, 
people,  or  simple  individual  goes  openly  counter  to  all  the 
divine  laws,  in  endeavoring  to  pile  up  a  mountain  of  gold, 
the  prize,  even  supposing  it  to  have  reached  his  hands,  will 
leave  in  them  only  ashes,  as  they  report  it  of  the  "ax)ples 


336  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

of  Sodom,"  culled  still  to-day  on  the  shores  of  the  Dead 
Sea. 

But  to  conclude,  look  a  moment  at  the  gloomy  and  fa- 
thomless gulf  into  which  so  many  victims  were  at  once 
precipitated  on  the  dark  evening  of  Black  Friday.  Count, 
if  you  can,  the  number  of  total  failures,  irretrievable  bank- 
ruptcies, discomfitures  amounting  to  ruin,  which  followed 
it,  and  were  recorded  in  newspapers  all  along  the  fatal  year 
that  commenced  on  this  day.  How  many  families  were 
suddenly  made  poor  !  How  many  houses  were  left  entirely 
desolate  !  The  country  itself  was  shaken  to  its  centre  ;  and 
this  mad  gambling  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  main  causes 
which  brought  on  this  long  prostration  in  commercial  and 
manufacturing  enterprises  which  is  not  over  yet  at  the 
present  moment.  If  the  authors  of  this  national  misfor- 
tune had  reflected  on  it  before  entering  upon  their  plot, 
they  would  have  recoiled  with  horror  at  the  awful  pros- 
pect. For  they  were  not  monsters,  and  did  not  wish  to  do 
evil  for  evil's  sake.  Most  of  them  were  among  the  first  to 
be  punished  for  it ;  and  the  just  retribution  awarded  them 
must  be  forever  kept  in  remembrance  to  prevent  even  the 
possibility  of  its  repetition. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

A  SAD  END   OF  GEEAT  HOPES. 

The  dispersion  of  the  immense  mass  of  people  gathered 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Exchange,  during  the  evening 
of  that  eventful  Friday,  was  fortunately  unattended  by  any 
accident  of  importance.  The  fact  is  that  it  took  place  lei- 
surely and  gloomily.  The  only  news  current  among  them 
was  the  sudden  and  astounding  fall  of  gold;  and  every 
word  uttered  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
telegraphed  to  New  York  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
was  repeated  by  so  many  thousand  lips,  that  if  each  utter- 
ance had  been  suddenly  autographed,  or  photographed,  or 
copied  in  whatever  way  you  wish,  many  large  volumes 
would  have  suddenly  appeared  for  circulation,  and  might 
have  been  considered  as  powerful  and  extremely  useful 
remembrancers  of  that  solemn  occasion. 

The  citizens  retired  with  sober  steps,  each  one  talking 
with  his  neighbor  in  a  subdued  voice;  and  all  appeared  very 
anxious  to  know  what  would  be  the  consequences  of  all  this 
to  the  country  at  large,  and  to  the  merchants  of  New  York 
in  particular.  Each  of  them  saw  very  clearly  that  the  crisis 
of  the  day  was  not  ended,  and  that  if  the  ''corner  in  gold  " 
had  been  broken,  the  happy  possession  of  that  much- 
coveted  metal  might  not  be  so  easy  to  acquire  as  many  of 
them  would  wish.  No  one  had  yet  spoken,  since  the  war 
with  the  South,  of  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  ;  but 
everybody  felt  instinctively  that  this  day  would  not  act 
favorably  to  bring  it  on  soon. 

22  337 


338  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

Mr.  Frederick  Kirkbride,  in  the  midst  of  that  crowd, 
retired  from  the  field  of  battle  perfectly  bewildered.  He 
threw  himself  into  a  hack  and  ordered  the  driver  to  take 
him  to  the  Great  Central  Hotel.  Arrived  there,  he  flew 
hurriedly  to  his  rooms,  commanded  his  footman  not  to 
admit  anybody,  and  stretching  himself  at  length  on  a  sofa, 
he  tried  to  collect  his  thoughts  and  render  to  himself  an 
approximate  account  of  the  state  of  his  affairs.  Would  a 
few  thousands  remain  in  his  hands  after  he  had  settled  all 
his  transactions  of  the  last  few  days  ?  It  was  very  doubt- 
ful. At  any  rate,  he  was  a  ruined  man  ;  and  not  only  he 
could  not  think  of  beginning  a  new  career  and  turning,  as 
they  say,  a  new  leaf,  but  it  was  not  even  possible  for  him  to 
appear  again  at  the  stock  exchange.  All  the  late  predic- 
tions of  his  poor  mother  were  fulfilled  ;  he  had  disgraced 
his  name,  brought  dishonor  on  his  family,  and  had  nothing 
else  to  do  but  .  .  .  die.  As  to  those  former  dreams  of 
a  brilliant  life,  of  untold  wealth  placing  at  his  command  all 
possible  sensual  enjoyments,  how  their  memory  was  turned 
into  a  harsh  and  pitiless  mockery  !  On  whom  could  he  look 
now  without  the  certainty  that  they  would  laugh  at  him  ? 
Could  he  be  cruel  enough  to  throw  himself  on  the  mercy  of 
his  mother,  who  was  carried  down  in  his  own  ruin,  and 
would  have  nothing  to  live  upon  except  the  paltry  revenue 
of  a  single  house  ?  Had  his  bitterest  enemy  come  at  this 
moment  and  plunged  a  dagger  into  his  heart,  he  would  have 
welcomed  the  stroke  of  death  given  by  another's  hand  ;  for 
the  wretched  young  man  would  willingly  have  embraced 
what  he  thought  to  be  annihilation,  provided  it  had  not 
devolved  on  him  to  procure  it  by  his  own  act.  The  cour- 
age of  the  suicide  is  real  cowardice,  since  it  is,  after  all, 
shrinldng  from  the  noble  effort  of  acknowledging  previous 
wrong-doing  and  retrieving  the  past ;  yet  this  last  resource  of 
blind  despair  is  often  above  the  resolution  of  the  enervated 
pleasure-seeker,  who  during  life  never  had  the  manliness  to 
restrain  his  bad  passions,  and  prefer  duty  to  bodily  enjoy- 
ment. Thus  was  the  soul  of  the  worthless  young  man 
tortured  and  racked,  when  suddenly  a  violent  altercation 


A  SAD  END  OF  GREAT  HOPES.  339 

was  heard  at  the  door,  and  the  voice  of  his  footman,  raised 
to  a  high  pitch,  ordered  away  some  stranger  who  wanted 
instant  admission.  But  the  stranger  resisted  the  command, 
and  with  a  blow  striking  down  the  valet,  pushed  open  the 
door  and  stood  fiercely  in  the  presence  of  F.  Kirkbride. 
It  was  no  one  else  but  John  himself,  and  the  following  rapid 
dialogue  dii^ectly  took  place  : 

"  I  did  not  call  you  ;  go  away  instantly." 

*'I  shall  not." 

"  What  do  you  want,  sirrah  ? " 

''You  are  richer  than  me,  even  after  this  day:  I  want 
my  share  of  what  you  have." 

' '  You  shall  have  your  wages,  and  I  do  not  want  you  any 
more." 

''You  speak  of  wages — I  request  my  share." 

"  Share  of  what  ?    You  are  a  fool." 

"  We  shall  see  who  is  the  gTeater  fool.  If  you  refuse 
what  I  ask,  you  ^vill  abide  by  the  consequences." 

"What  consequences,  you  idiot?" 

"  The  consequences  of  your  keeping  that  will  to  yourself. 
I  shall  certainly  denounce  you." 

"Do  what  you  please,  scoundrel,  but  leave  me;  such  a 
one  as  you  cannot  hurt  me." 

"We  shall  see  ;  I  give  you  three  days  to  comply,"  and 
John  ran  away. 

Our  readers  can  perceive  that  the  ex-valet  was  desperate. 
He  had,  in  fact,  lost  the  few  days  previous  all  he  had  ;  he 
was  not  now  worth  a  penny.  He  knew  that  his  "em- 
ployer" had  likewise  lost  largely,  but  he  thought  that  be- 
ing so  excessively  rich  a  year  or  so  before,  he  owned  yet 
a  good  round  sum,  the  half  of  which  he  unblushingly 
claimed  to  start  in  life  again,  and  become,  in  course  of  time, 
richer  than  his  "master."  He  was  sure  that  the  secret  he 
possessed  would  bring  down  Mr.  Frederick  to  grant  him 
what  he  proudly  asked,  and  thus  he  stood  now  on  a  per- 
fect footing  of  equality  with  the  once  proud  heir  of  the 
Kirkbrides.  The  position  of  both  was  well  defined ;  they 
were  now  sworn  enemies. 


340  LOUISA  KIBEBRIDE. 

John,  however,  in  his  ruin  had  another  resource  denied 
to  his  antagonist ;  he  was,  as  we  know,  a  burglar  as  well  as 
a  villain  ;  and  from  the  splendid  apartments  of  the  Great 
Central  Hotel,  he  took  hurriedly  his  seat  in  a  horse-car, 
and  was  soon  in  the  neighborhood  of  Greene  Street.  The 
well-known  public  house  was  crowded  with  people,  all 
eagerly  discussing  the  various  features  of  the  stock  ex- 
change briefly  related  in  the  evening  papers.  The  ex-foot- 
man entered  the  large  room  of  the  establishment  without 
appearing  to  recognize  any  one,  and  slyly  passed  into  an 
inner  and  smaller  apartment,  where  he  was  soon  engaged 
with  the  ''outlaw."  Schwitz  appeared  more  determined 
in  his  villainy  than  ever,  and  from  the  animated  conversa- 
tion which  took  place  between  the  two  friends,  it  was  mani- 
fest that  some  great  event  was  being  prepared  of  a  nature 
requiring  to  be  watched  over  by  the  guardians  of  the  city. 
In  fact,  young  Talty  w^as  actually  on  the  watch,  and,  al- 
though he  remained  at  the  time  in  the  large  room,  and  did 
not  even  witness  from  a  distance  the  interview  between 
John  and  Schwitz,  he  that  very  night  learned  from  the  sure 
intelligence  he  had  had  time  to  secure  among  some  of  the 
inmates,  that  a  project  was  on  foot  which  would  surely  en- 
rich a  good  number  of  the  frequenters  of  the  place. 

Nothing  else,  if  you  please,  was  in  the  wind,  but  to 
''burglarize"  one  of  the  richest  banks  in  the  city.  If  we 
were  to  enumerate  all  the  financial  establishments  which 
have  been  the  prey  of  the  "brotherhood  " — for  it  is  a  kind 
of  San-hermandad — the  list  alone  would  fill  several  of  our 
pages  ;  and,  in  almost  all  instances,  the  highest  skill,  yea, 
the  perfection  of  "science  "  was  brought  in  aid  of  robbery. 
In  Europe,  in  general,  burglars  and  counterfeiters  are  not 
"scientific"  men;  you  do  not  find  among  them  great 
chemists,  perfect  engravers,  most  ingenious  locksmiths, 
admirable  compounders  of  explosive  substances,  nothing 
deserving  the  name  of  science  ;  everything  in  such  a  noble 
way  of  procuring  wealth,  is  carried  out  in  the  Old  World  in 
the  most  clumsy  manner  ;  burglars  know  only  the  crowbar 
and  the  chisel ;  chemists,  if  there  are  any  among  them, 


A  SAD  END  OF  GREAT  HOPES,  341 

have  never  thoroughly  studied  the  latest  discoveries  as  to 
the  best  proportion  to  be  used  of  fulminating  mercury  and 
chlorate  of  potash  ;  engravers  produce  ridiculous  specimens 
of  art  which  can  deceive  only  simpletons  ;  pretended  lock- 
smiths know  absolutely  nothing  of  the  ''science  of  combi- 
nation," etc.,  etc.;  but  in  the  United  States,  men  eminent  in 
all  branches  of  mechanical  and  chemical  art,  think  it  some- 
times more  profitable  to  have  their  sure  percentage  in  all 
good  burglaries,  than  to  live  simply  on  their  skill  in  regular 
and  legitimate  business.  Hence  often,  bank  officers,  even, 
cannot  detect  the  difference  between  a  good  bill  and  a  bad 
one  ;  and  as  to  combination  locks,  the  very  artists  who  have 
invented  them  or  who  make  them  to  perfection,  are,  occa- 
sionally, in  partnership  with  well-organized  bands  of  public 
robbers.  How  could  it  be  otherwise,  since  not  unfrequently 
the  police  officers  themselves  receive  their  share  in  some 
heavy  operations.  A  strange  form,  indeed,  of  the  passion 
called  auTi  sacra  fames  !  We  must  not,  consequently,  be 
surprised  that  in  the  year  of  grace,  186-,  Mr.  John,  Mr. 
Schwitz,  and  ten  other  ingenious,  bold,  and  most  skillful 
gentlemen-burglars  formed  the  plan  of  transferring  to  their 
own  coffers  the  specie  and  bills  contained  in  the  safes  of 
one  of  the  richest  banks  in  TN'ew  York.  It  was  to  be  done 
on  the  ''masked  plan  ;  "  that  is,  the  operators  had  agreed 
to  wear  masks,  and  go  boldly  to  a  strong  institution  where 
it  was  known  that,  in  the  spare  apartments  of  the  building, 
lived  and  slept  a  couple  of  respectable  families,  w^hose  heads 
were,  at  the  same  time,  high  officers  in  the  establishment. 
They  could  enter  easily  with  the  best  tools  produced  by  the 
skill  of  locksmiths,  bind  and  gag  all  the  inmates,  oblige, 
with  revolver  in  hand,  the  head  of  the  house  to  furnish  the 
keys  ;  they  could  then  open  the  safes  and  choose  the  heavi- 
est and  at  the  same  time  lightest  coin  or  currency,  and  de- 
part in  peace,  leaving  the  inmates  to  themselves,  with  mana- 
cles on  their  hands  and  feet,  and  closely-fitting  gags  on 
their  mouths,  to  be  thus  discovered  in  the  morning  when 
the  large  outside  door  of  the  institution  would  be  opened 
by  the  astonished  porter. 


342  LOUISA  KIREBRIBE. 

This  plan,  it  is  kno^\Ti,  lias  admirably  succeeded  in  seve- 
ral instances,  and  in  tlie  year  1873,  in  particular,  in  the 
suburbs  of  the  delightful  village  called  Waterford,  in  Al- 
bany County.  It  would  have  surely  succeeded,  likewise,  in 
the  instance  we  now  record,  had  not  Mr.  Ahern  got  wind  of 
the  project  just  in  time,  from  Talty. 

Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne,  informed  of  it,  communicated 
instantly  and  secretly  with  the  bank  authorities,  agreed 
with  them  to  allow  the  ingenious  contrivers  of  the  plot  to 
partially  succeed  so  far  as  the  binding  and  gagging  of  the 
inmates  went ;  and  to  fall  on  them  in  the  midst  of  their 
admirable  operation,  so  as  to  catch  them  all  as  in  a  net. 
They  had  time  to  prepare,  as  the  affair  would  not  take 
place  before  several  days  had  elapsed. 

A  dozen  athletic  men  of  the  force  were  chosen  by  Mr. 
O' Byrne,  who  was  to  be  their  leader ;  they  were  all  intro- 
duced secretly  at  dusk,  on  the  day  appointed,  into  a  lower 
room  of  the  basement,  central  with  respect  to  the  whole 
building,  and  having  three  doors  by  which  the  men  could 
come  up  in  squads  of  four,  at  the  required  moment.  The 
signal  was  to  be  given  by  one  of  the  gagged  men,  who  could 
easily  with  his  tied  hands  pull  the  twine  attached  to  a 
small  bell  in  the  room  below.  We  relate  the  whole  fact 
directly,  to  have  done  with  it. 

Between  one  and  two  in  the  morning  the  burglars  came, 
all  sure  of  success,  everything  had  been  so  nicely  combined. 
They  entered,  closed  the  door,  went  straight  to  the  various 
rooms  where  they  knew  they  would  find  their  intended  vic- 
tims, who,  as  the  best  luck  could  have  it,  were  found  appa- 
rently fast  asleep.  To  seize  them — men  and  women — bind 
their  hands  and  feet,  gag  them,  and  order  them  to  keep 
quiet  under  pain  of  death,  was  the  work  of  a  moment. 
Then  the  leader  of  the  band  coming  to  the  gentleman  at  the 
head  of  the  house,  in  fact,  the  cashier  of  the  establishment, 
bade  him  hand  over  the  keys,  or  perish  if  he  refused.  He 
showed  at  the  same  time  a  revolver,  which  he  appeared  de- 
termined to  use  in  case  of  non-compliance.  A  subdued  light 


A  SAB  END  OF  GREAT  HOPES.  343 

kept  always  during  night  in  the  building  allowed  every  one 
to  see  sufficiently  for  acting. 

At  this  very  instant,  the  signal  was  given  below  with- 
out any  of  the  burglars  hearing  the  bell.  Mr.  Cornelius 
O' Byrne,  leading  the  best  squad  of  his  men,  came  up  first, 
and  walked  straight  to  the  masked  ruffian,  who  held  the 
weapon  almost  at  the  head  of  the  cashier. 

"  Give  up  your  pistol  or  you  shall  die,"  he  said. 

''  !N'ot  for  you,"  answered  the  ruffian,  who  appeared  ready 
to  use  his  weapon.  Then  a  report  came  from  the  revolver 
of  young  O' Byrne,  and  a  bullet  having  lodged  in  the  side 
of  the  burglar,  his  arm  dropped  instantly,  and  his  body  fell 
heavily  on  the  floor. 

No  other  firearm  was  discharged  ;  the  reason  of  it  could 
never  be  ascertained.  It  was  probably  the  effect  of  sur- 
prise on  the  side  of  the  ruffians ;  and  the  policemen  wished 
to  secure  their  men  alive.  A  short  struggle,  therefore,  en- 
sued, a  hand-to-hand  conflict,  in  which  the  guardians  of 
the  city,  having  their  clubs,  easily  mastered  their  oppo- 
nents. But,  some  confusion  was  unavoidable,  as  it  was  a 
fight  of  twelve  against  twelve  ;  and  unfortunately  for  future 
peace  three  of  the  robbers  escaped,  among  them  the  ''out- 
law." 

When  all  was  finished,  the  first  thing  done  by  Mr.  Cor- 
nelius O' Byrne  was  to  attend  to  the  wounded  man  ;  and  to 
his  great  surprise,  in  tearing  away  his  mask,  he  recognized 
the  features  of  John,  and  understood  the  meaning  of  his 
words  when  ordered  to  give  up  his  weapon  :  ' '  Not  for  you." 
The  wretched  man  was  enraged  to  see  that  the  young  Irish- 
man, against  whom  he  had  sworn  eternal  enmity,  had  his 
turn  of  revenge— so  he  thought — and  this  humiliation,  after 
having  had,  for  so  long  a  time,  an  apparent  superiority, 
was  the  real  cause  of  the  fierce  courage  he  showed  at  the 
moment,  so  little  in  keeping  with  his  base  life,  and  his  well- 
known  character  as  a  poltroon. 

A  stretcher  was  instantly  made  ;  the  wounded  man  was 
placed  on  it ;  two  policemen  carried  him  out  to  be  sent  in- 
stantly to  Bellevue  Hospital,  and  the  other  captured  rob- 


344  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

bers,  each  one  manacled  and  in  the  hands  of  an  officer,  were 
securely  lodged  that  very  night  in  the  Tombs. 

The  doctor  made  an  examination  of  the  wounded  pris- 
oner, as  soon  as  he  reached  the  island.  He  directly  saw 
that  the  wound  would  prove  fatal,  and  told  him  so  ;  the  bul- 
let could  never  be  extracted,  and  it  is  probable  that  inter- 
nal hemorrhage  was  already  taking  place. 

"If  you  have,"  said  the  surgeon,  *'any  declaration  to 
make,  there  is  no  time  to  lose."  John  had  ;  and  he  stated 
that  he  wished  a  magistrate  should  receive  from  him  a 
"very  important  communication."  Notice  of  it  was  di- 
rectly sent  to  the  usual  legal  officer,  and,  after  dressing 
the  wound,  the  doctor  left  the  wretched  man  to  his  o\vn 
thoughts.  They  were,  indeed,  far  from  pleasant.  After 
having  so  long  succeeded  in  all  his  guilty  undertakings, 
after  having  stained  his  soul  with  so  many  crimes,  and,  with 
the  hope  of  greater  prosperity,  continued  in  them  to  the 
last  moment,  he  was  suddenly  told  his  life  was  nearly  ended, 
and  he  would  never  rise  from  the  bed  on  which  he  was 
writhing  in  pain.  Should  he,  even  by  a  miracle,  in  which 
he  did  not  believe,  be  restored  to  health,  it  would  be  merely 
as  a  criminal  fated  to  spend  long  years  in  durance,  without 
money  sufficient  to  bribe  lawyers  and  keepers,  nay,  without 
a  penny  to  render  his  life  in  jail  more  endurable.  In  his 
memory,  racked  by  a  thousand  horrible  fancies,  there  was 
not  a  single  past  event  of  his  life  which  could  bring  rest 
to  his  tortured  imagination ;  and  of  all  the  men  that  he 
knew,  and  with  whom  he  had  had  any  dealings,  there  was 
not  a  single  one  whom  he  did  not  detest  or  despise ;  from 
no  one  could  he  expect  the  consolation  of  friendship  or 
even  the  sympathy  of  common  humanity.  To  come  to  this 
end,  therefore,  had  he  plotted  all  his  life,  used  wretched 
instruments  of  open  crime  or  of  guilty  pleasure,  and  often 
congratulated  himself  on  the  invariable  success  of  whatever 
he  undertook.  He  never  had  any  feeling  of  religion  what- 
ever ;  and,  at  this  moment,  religion  alone  could  have  con- 
soled him,  and  offered,  to  his  true  repentance,  the  hope  of 
the  forgiveness  of  God,  and  the  prospect  of  a  better  life,  if 


A  SAD  END  OF  GREAT  HOPES.  345 

he  was  yet  spared.  All  around  Ms  bed  many  men  were, 
like  Mm,  stretched  in  angmsh  and  agony  ;  and  some  among 
them  had,  no  more  than  he,  any  hope  of  recovery.  Yet  not 
a  single  one,  except  himself,  appeared  altogether  miserable. 
Several  received  the  consolations  of  religion  from  Catholic 
priests,  whose  sight  raised  in  his  stomach  the  savor  of  bile. 
He  soon  perceived  that  even  tender-hearted  women  came  to 
speak  gently  to  some  of  his  companions  in  misery.  None 
approached  his  bed  at  first,  and  he  thought  himself  an  out- 
cast among  mankind,  and  the  object  of  universal  detesta- 
tion ;  when  finally  a  female  in  the  dress  of  a  Sister  came 
near  him,  and  asked  him,  with  a  subdued  voice,  sweeter 
than  usual,  because  tempered  with  the  Irish  brogue,  "If  he 
would  be  plazed  to  listen  to  her."  A  taste  of  bitterness 
more  acrid  than  gall  rose  instantly  to  his  throat,  and  with 
flaming  eyes  he  answered  :  "Go  your  way  !  "  Had  it  not 
been  an  Irish  voice,  he  might  have  listened. 

These  were  the  feelings  which  agitated  the  breast  of  the 
ex-valet,  when  the  magistrate  who  was  to  receive  his  ante- 
mortem  declaration  came,  and  sat  near  his  bed. 

Determined,  it  appears,  to  remain  a  villain  to  his  last 
breath,  he  dared  to  declare  to  the  gentleman  who  began 
writing  his  deposition,  ' '  that,  aware  of  his  dangerous  situ- 
ation, and  the  probability  of  his  death,  he  thought  right, 
solely  that  justice  might  be  done,  to  declare  that  he  had 
been  formerly  the  accidental  instrument  and  witness  of  a 
highly  criminal  transaction,  which  his  conscience  obliged 
him  now  to  denounce."  This  was  his  hypocritical  pream- 
ble, when  he  had,  at  this  moment,  no  other  motive  than 
revenge,  and  when  his  conscience  told  him  he  was  originally 
as  guilty  as  his  former  young  master.  Then  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  death  of  Mr.  R.  Kirkbride  were  related  in 
detail,  with  the  finding  in  his  pocket  of  a  package  directed 
to  Mr.  Wilson,  his  attorney,  in  New  York.  This  package, 
John  said,  he  thought  his  duty  to  hand  over  to  the  son,  that 
"he  might  transmit  it  to  its  address."  But,  as  it  soon 
leaked  out  that  the  paper  was  nothing  else  but  a  change  of 
Ms  •v\lll,  by  which  the  property  of  the  dying  gentleman, 


346  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

instead  of  being  devised  to  his  son,  would  go  in  bulk  to  Ms 
wife,  yet  living,  the  young  ''heir  "  thought  fit  to  keep  it  to 
himself,  and  thus  inherit  what  had  been  willed  to  his  mother. 
The  name  of  the  attorney  who  had  written  the  instrument, 
under  the  dictation  of  Mr.  R.  Kirkbride,  was  given  by  the 
''deponent,"  so  that  his  ante-mortem  testimony  might  be 
fully  corroborated.  It  is  useless  to  add,  that  the  magistrate 
who  took  the  deposition  of  John,  directly  sent  it  to  the 
District  Attorney  of  New  York. 

This  gentleman,  before  acting,  as  it  was  his  duty  in  the 
case,  called  Mr.  Cornelius  O'Bryne,  that  he  might  commu- 
nicate the  sad  news  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride ;  and  the  young 
Irishman  instantly  went  to  see  his  sister,  in  order  that  she 
might  give  the  first  intimation  of  it  to  the  lady.  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride was  alone  in  her  room  when  Julia  entered,  and  she 
heard  at  first,  with  composure,  what  the  girl  had  to  say. 

"They  cannot,  I  hope,  do  anything  to  Frederick,"  she 
remarked,  "as  even  in  the  supposition  he  is  guilty,  I  am 
the  only  person  injured,  and  I  will  certainly  not  prosecute 
him.  His  conscience  must  render  him  miserable  enough, 
and  I  cannot  think  of  revenging  myself  on  him  for  such  a 
thing  as  money.  If  the  poor  yoimg  man  only  opened  his 
eyes  and  came  back  at  last  to  the  practice  of  religion,  which 
alone  can  for  him  repair  the  past,  I  would,  with  joy,  forget 
all  his  former  misdeedjs  and  treat  him  again  as  my  dear  son. 
I  am  sure  nothing  of  importance  will  come  out  of  this  new 
turn  of  affairs." 

"But,  madam,"  rejoined  Julia,  "my  brother  told  me  that 
it  is  a  criminal  offense,  and  the  prosecuting  attorney  will 
have  to  arrest  him  under  warrant  and  bring  him  to  trial,  even 
should  you  not  move  in  the  matter.  These  are  the  expres- 
sions my  brother  used,  and  although  I  scarcely  understand 
them  all,  the  result,  at  least,  is  clear  to  me,  that  his  guilt  will 
become  public,  and  he  will,  in  open  day,  be  taken  to  jail." 

"  God  forbid,' '  exclaimed  the  lady.  "  I  must  go  directly 
to  see  that  gentleman,  and  you  will  come  with  me,  Julia." 

A  carriage  was  soon  procured,  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride  went 
far  down  town,  where  she  had  not  appeared  for  many 


A  SAD  END  OF  GREAT  HOPES.  347 

months.  The  office  of  the  district  attorney  was  reached, 
and  the  name  of  the  lady  visitor  being  given,  she  was  in- 
stantly admitted. 

*'  What  has  my  boy  done ? "  she  said,  ''that  you  should 
prosecute  him  without  my  consent  ?  I  have  been  the  only 
one  to  suffer,  in  case  he  has  really  done  what  he  is  accused 
of,  and  his  accuser  is  a  miserable  wretch,  whose  testimony 
no  honest  man  can  trust." 

"  It  may  be  as  you  say,  madam,"  replied  the  district  at- 
torney, ''and  I  hope  that  the  innocence  of  your  son  will  come 
out  on  this  trial ;  but  if  the  respectable  lawyer  employed 
by  your  husband  to  change  his  will,  and  to  whom  I  have 
just  written  this  morning,  confirms  the  declaration  of  the 
wretched  dying  burglar,  there  will  be  a  strong  presumption 
against  your  son,  and  it  wiU  be  my  duty  to  act  upon  it." 

"  But  who  has  been  injured  besides  myself  to  require  his 
punishment  ?  If  I  forgive  him,  who  shall  appear  against 
him?" 

"  I  will,  myself,  madam,"  retorted  the  State  prosecutor, 
"and  it  shall  be  my  duty  to  do  my  best  to  have  him  con- 
victed. If  he  is  guilty,  he  has  committed  a  crime,  not  only 
against  you,  but  against  society,  and  no  consideration  can 
prevent  me  from  acting  in  the  matter." 

The  lady  was  deeply  pained  ;  she  had  yet  no  idea  of  the 
real  losses  of  her  son,  and  thought  that  he  might  still  re- 
trieve the  past,  repent  of  his  errors,  and  have  enough  left  to 
begin  again  a  useful  career.  In  case  of  such  an  event,  he 
might  keep  himself  whatever  remained  of  the  property  of 
his  father,  even  after  he  had  appropriated  it  to  himself  un- 
justly, by  depriving  her  of  the  control  she  was  entitled  to 
over  it.  These  were  her  thoughts — thoughts  worthy  of  her, 
far  above  those  of  ordinary  mothers,  yet  unfounded,  in 
fact,  because  the  ruin  of  the  spendthrift  was  total  and  irre- 
trievable. She  was,  therefore,  in  fact,  contending  with  the 
district  attorney  against  her  own  just  rights,  and  this  officer, 
who  was,  like  her,  ignorant  of  the  exact  situation  of  the 
son,  thought  proper  to  give  her  an  advice  to  which  he  would 
condescend  to  lend  his  aid,  as  far  as  his  duty  would  allow. 


348  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

''Consider,  madam,"  lie  said,  ''that  your  son,  who,  I 
understand,  lately  lost  largely  in  stock  gambling,  may  be 
still  unjustly  possessed  of  a  large  amount  of  property  be- 
longing, in  fact,  to  you,  and  which  the  law  must  wrest  from 
his  grasp  to  return  it  to  the  proper  owner,  yourself." 

"Suppose,"  eagerly  resumed  the  lady,  "he  freely  gives 
it  back  of  his  own  accord,  with  satisfactory  pledges  of  a 
future  praiseworthy  life,  would  you  insist  on  publishing  to 
the  world  his  former  guilt,  and  immuring  him  in  a  prison 
without  hope  of  reformation  ? " 

"Well,  madam,"  remarked  the  astonished  magistrate, 
"  see  him  directly,  and  ascertain  how  matters  stand.  Mean- 
while, I  am  not  bound  to  act  to-day ;  I  will  not  move  until 
I  receive  an  answer  from  the  north.  I  may  even  postpone 
still  further  my  action,  after  that  answer  arrives,  to  give 
time  for  further  and  better  developments." 

The  worthy  gentleman,  after  this,  helped  Mrs.  Kirkbride, 
who  was  almost  paralyzed  with  emotion,  to  rise,  as  she  was 
preparing  to  leave.  But  hearing  her  give  some  directions  to 
Miss  0' Byrne,  as  she  called  her,  he  kindly  inquired  if  the 
young  lady  was  the  sister  of  Cornelius  his  friend — so  he  en- 
titled him — who  was,  he  knew,  waiting  in  the  antechamber 
for  the  result  of  the  interview.  On  an  affirmative  answer 
being  given,  Mr.  0' Byrne  was  called  in  for  a  moment,  and 
he  received,  with  sensible  pleasure,  the  direction  not  to  ex- 
ecute the  orders  he  had  already  in  his  hands  for  the  arrest 
of  the  young  man,  until  further  notice  ;  but  to  take  cogni- 
zance of  the  turn  of  affairs,  and  prevent,  if  possible,  the 
lady  from  being  imposed  upon  by  her  son. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride,  this  time,  did  not  feel  any  delicacy  or 
fear  in  the  idea  of  going  to  the  apartments  of  her  son  at  the 
Great  Central  Hotel ;  and,  leaving  Julia  to  go  home  on  the 
horse-car  line,  she  directed  the  driver  to  take  her  to  a  place 
of  which  she  had  always  had  an  unaccountable  dread,  and 
which  she  was  going  to  visit  for  the  first  time  in  her  life. 

But,  as  all  this  took  place  several  days  after  the  crash, 
before  listening  to  the  conversation  of  the  mother  and  son, 
we  must  know  the  mental  vicissitudes  through  which  the 


A  SAD  END  OF  GREAT  HOPES.  349 

young  man  had  passed,  since  his  return  to  the  hotel.  After 
the  anxious  thoughts  in  which  we  last  left  him,  he  had 
spent  a  sleepless  night  in  the  burning  heat  of  a  high  fever. 
At  daybreak  the  following  day  he  arose,  and,  seated  at  his 
desk,  he  summoned  to  his  side  by  a  hasty  note  Mr.  Dio 
Reckoning,  with  whom  he  wished  to  have  a  last  conversa- 
tion. He  then  j)enned  another  short  letter  to  the  "ladies" 
of  his  establishment  up  towTi,  expressing  his  heartful  regret 
at  his  future  inability  to  bear  the  expenses  of  the  house, 
and  hinted  at  the  possibility  of  everything  being  sold  there 
shortly. 

This  accomplished,  he  felt  that  a  far  higher  duty  called 
upon  him  to  write  to  his  mother,  or  rather  to  go  and  ask 
her  forgiveness  for  the  past ;  but  false  shame  detained  him, 
and,  having  drunk  a  cup  of  strong  coffee,  he  called  his  car- 
riage to  the  door,  and  drove  through  the  Park  in  a  kind  of  ex- 
hausted condition  of  body  and  mind.  Where  he  was  going, 
what  he  would  do,  in  fact,  why  he  lived  yet,  and  how  long 
he  would  still  live,  were  puzzling  questions  which  he  could 
not  answer.  At  the  entrance  to  the  Park,  he  saw  a  squad 
of  policemen  standing  idle  and  talking  together,  and  at  the 
sight  he  involuntarily  shuddered,  as  if  he  thought  they  had 
a  warrant  against  him,  and  were  on  the  point  of  arresting 
him  and  lodging  him  with  common  felons  in  the  Tombs. 
The  few  riders,  or  promenaders,  he  met  in  the  splendid  in- 
closure,  were  unknown  to  him,  and  he  felt  glad  of  it ;  for, 
since  his  fall,  it  was  one  of  the  greatest  tortures  for  his 
nerves  to  meet  people  who  had  known  him  in  his  pros- 
perity. But,  after  what  had  now  happened,  they  did  not 
appear  eager  to  notice  him,  to  bow,  or  even  nod  to  him ; 
some  actually  grinned  at  him — so,  at  least,  he  supposed — 
and  appeared  pleased  at  his  misfortune.  He  did  not  dare 
to  be  the  first  to  recognize  a  former  acquaintance,  through 
fear  of  being  openly  disowned,  or,  at  least,  coldly  disre- 
garded ;  he  once  received  a  gruff  answer  to  his  polite  greet- 
ing. One  or  two  accosted  him  with  a  bluntness  which  savored 
of  savageness,  and  spoke  of  his  ill-luck  with  a  broad  laugh : 
''Would  not  he  do  better  next  time,  ha,  ha  ? "    They  meant, 


350  LOUISA  EinKBRIDE. 

perhaps,  to  be  jolly  ;  they  were,  in  fact,  thrusting  a  sharp 
blade  through  his  frame. 

These  were  the  chief  occurrences  of  his  ramble,  and  he 
returned  to  his  apartments  more  fatigued  and  dispirited 
than  when  he  went  out.  He  found  Mr.  Dio  Eeckoning 
waiting  for  him.  This  gentleman  wore  a  very  solemn  air, 
and  had  brought  with  him  a  huge  mass  of  papers — as  the 
note  that  called  him  had  requested.  His  accounts  were 
ready,  and  had  been  easy  to  make  up,  since  not  a  shred  of 
real  estate  remained  to  Mr.  Frederick,  except  his  splendid 
establishment  up  town,  which  even  was  mortgaged  to  its 
full  value,  and  had  been  already  advertised  for  sale.  The 
percentage  due  Mr.  D.  Reckoning  for  his  ''benevolent" 
aid  in  the  business  transactions  of  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride,  very 
nearly  balanced  the  money  in  hand  belonging  to  the  same 
gentleman,  and  thus  a  paltry  check  for  a  thousand  dollars 
or  so  was  all  the  "  attorney"  had  to  hand  over.  Mr.  Frede- 
rick knew  that,  in  the  two  or  three  banks  which  he  used 
for  his  deposits — we  know  how  early  he  began  to  employ 
more  than  one — he  would  find  some  light  balances  to  his 
credit,  so  that  if  the  whole  of  his  actual  fortune  reached 
the  figure  of  ten  thousand,  he  could  consider  himself  as 
more  lucky  than  he  deserved.  With  this  amount  in  hand, 
he  might  think  of  instantly  leaving  New  York  and  retiring 
to  some  distant  city,  where,  with  his  great  business  ability, 
he  might  continue  to  live  on,  and  perhaps,  ultimately  pros- 
per. For  he  clung  to  life  more  than  he  had  first  imagined, 
and  the  dream  of  the  superhuman  career  he  had  formerly 
indulged  in,  having  suddenly  vanished,  he  might  fall  back 
on  a  much  more  reduced  plan.  This  occupied  his  mind 
for  several  days,  during  which  he  kept  his  room,  taking  his 
meals  in  it. 

These  were  the  gloomy,  yet,  at  last,  sufficiently  reasonable 
thoughts  which  passed  through  his  mind,  day  and  night, 
for  nearly  a  week,  and  which  were  beginning  to  take  a 
shape  when  the  carriage  of  his  mother  drove  up  to  the 
hotel,  on  its  return  from  the  office  of  the  district  attorney. 
Mr.  F.  Kirkbride  was  fairly  bewildered  when  he  received  her 


A  SAB  END  OF  GREAT  HOPES.  351 

in  his  most  private  room  and  closed  tlie  door.  He  felt  he 
had  once  more  faDed  in  his  duty  in  not  paying  her  the  first 
visit  after  his  misfortune,  and  had  scarcely  the  courage 
to  ask  her  how  she  was. 

''I  am  sufficiently  well,  my  son,"  she  answered  ;  ^'but  I 
am  afraid  you  yourself,  are  not  well.  A  little  more  than  a 
week  ago,  you  told  me  that  before  this  I  would  see  my  mis- 
take and  approve  of  the  line  of  conduct  you  were  following, 
and  I  come  to  ask  you  what  reason  I  have  to  do  so." 

"Mother,"  he  said,  "  you  were  right,  and  I  was  mistaken. 
I  must  acknowledge  to  you  my  folly;  I  am  now  a  ruined  man.' ' 

"Do  you  only  mean,"  she  said,  "  that  you  have  lost  the 
greater  part  of  the  wealth  left  by  your  father,  and  not  been 
guilty  of  anything  punishable  by  the  laws  \ " 

"This  is  certainly  my  meaning,"  he  replied;  "I  am  not 
aware  that  anything  so  disgraceful  as  a  criminal  process  at 
law  can  be  entered  upon  against  me." 

"Yet,  my  son,"  she  remarked,  with  tears  in  her  eyes, 
"the  district  attorney  thinks  he  can  prosecute  you." 

"The  district  attorney  !  "  exclaimed  the  wretched  young 
man,  blushing  deeply  and  almost  shaking  with  fear  ;  "on 
whose  deposition,  and  for  what  crime  ? ' ' 

"  On  the  deposition  of  the  former  footman  of  your  father, 
and  for  a  crime  which  I  cannot  name,"  rejoined  the  lady. 

This  was  a  terrible  revelation  to  the  guilty  son !  Feeling 
a  disgust  for  the  reading  even  of  a  newspaper,  he  had  not 
opened  one  since  Black  Friday,  and  did  not  know  anything 
of  the  attempted  burglary  and  the  apprehension  of  John. 
The  threat  of  speaking  out  in  "three  days,"  uttered  by  the 
valet,  had  escaped  his  memory,  as,  at  the  time,  the  young 
man  did  not  think  the  fellow  would  do  so,  and  more  than 
three  days  had  elapsed  since  that  threat. 

"  How  did  you  come  to  hear  this,  mother?"  he  said,  with 
scarcely  breath  enough  to  utter  the  phrase. 

"The  district  attorney  called  me  to  his  office,"  she  di- 
rectly answered;  "he  intended  first  to  arrest  you  before 
speaking  to  me,  and  I  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  induce 
him  to  postpone  his  action." 


352  LOUISA  KntKBRLDE. 

^'When  does  lie  intend  to  send  tlie  constable?"  ejacu- 
lated the  downcast  wretch. 

"He  says,"  she  replied,  ^'the  matter  may  be  arranged, 
without  a  criminal  prosecution,  if  a  notable  part  of  the  for- 
mer wealth  of  your  father  remains  to  be  disposed  of  accord- 
ing to  the  altered  will  of  my  husband." 

''Let  him,  therefore,  prosecute  me,"  retorted  her  son, 
''since  no  notable  part,  in  fact,  nothing,  remains." 

And,  in  saying  this,  the  unfortunate  young  man  fell 
heavily  on  the  floor. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  called  the  footman  to  her  assistance,  and 
with  his  help  her  son  was  carried  to  his  bed,  where  he  soon 
revived.  The  servant  being  dismissed,  the  lady  threw  her- 
self on  the  prostrate  form  of  Frederick. 

"Forgive  me,"  she  said  ;  "I  could  not  help  telling  you 
this,  and  it  was  only  for  your  good  I  spoke.  Oh,  my  dear 
Frederick,  if  at  least  at  this  moment  you  would  come  back 
to  reason  and  to  your  God,  I  am  sure  that  a  great  part  of  the 
past  evil  could  be  corrected,  and  we  might  yet  enjoy  happy 
days." 

"No,  mother,"  he  exclaimed  in  a  kind  of  frantic  rage, 
"it  cannot  be  ;  leave  me  alone,  and  do  not  look  upon  me 
any  more  ;  I  am  a  wretch,  I  am  undone,  there  is  no  hope  ! " 

The  admirable  mother  would  have  remained  the  whole 
night  with  her  son ;  and  her  tears,  her  tender  words,  her 
motherly  embraces,  might  have  soothed  down  the  excited 
feelings  of  the  young  man,  and  brought  him  to  better  senti- 
ments. But  the  violent  storm  which  had  been  raging  in  his 
heart  for  so  many  days,  again  arising,  rendered  still  more 
violent  by  this  last  discovery,  burst  forth  at  once  with  a 
vehemence  which  could  not  be  subdued  even  by  the  en- 
treaties of  a  mother.  She  really  feared  that  he  would  die  in 
a  paroxysm  of  passion.  A  physician  living  in  the  hotel  was 
instantly  summoned,  who,  after  receiving  from  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride a  slight  though  veiled  account  of  the  cause,  told  her 
she  must  by  all  means  leave  him,  and  not  come  back  before 
he  would  let  her  know  it  was  safe.  She,  therefore,  went 
back  ta  her  carriage  to  her  home  plunged  in  sorrow,  and 


LAST    MEETING    OF    FREDERICK    AND    HIS    MOTHER. 


A  SAD  END  OF  GREAT  HOPES.  353 

almost  refusing  to  be  comforted  even  by  the  tender  attentions 
of  Rosa  and  Julia.  The  physician,  left  alone  with  the  young 
man,  brought  him  gradually  to  his  senses  ;  and  after  admin- 
istering an  opiate  which  he  thought  sufficient  to  put  him 
to  sleep,  ordered  the  footman  to  watch  his  master  until  day- 
light, and  departed. 

But  the  "opiate"  could  not  conjure  the  nervous  frenzy  of 
the  patient.  Recovering,  after  half  an  hour,  sufficient  con- 
sciousness, he  dismissed  his  servant,  declaring  he  wished  to 
be  left  alone ;  and  during  the  whole  night  nothing  further 
was  heard  by  the  footman,  who  stretched  himself  on  a  lounge 
in  the  next  room. 

When  the  morning  arrived  the  greatest  peace  reigned  all 
around  ;  this  was  a  very  pleasing  symptom  after  the  fearful 
excitement  of  the  previous  evening  :  but  ten  o'clock  having 
struck  without  any  change,  the  servant  entered  the  room 
cautiously,  and  found  his  young  master  in  a  sleep  from  which 
there  could  be  no  awakening — he  was  dead. 

What  was  the  real  cause  of  his  demise  1  Was  it  a  sudden 
fit  of  nervous  apoplexy  ?  A  total  collapse  of  the  system  ?  A 
breaking  of  the  heart  ?  or  some  subtle  poison  taken  by  him 
when  left  alone  during  the  night  ?  An  inquest,  held  on  the 
following  day,  could  not  determine  with  certainty,  No 
organic  lesion  was  visible,  and  the  physicians  were  puzzled. 
A  witness  testified  that,  some  time  before,  Mr.  F.  Kirkbride 
showed  him  a  very  small  vial  which  he  playfully  said,  ' '  could 
put  a  man  out  of  trouble  and  no  one  would  be  the  wiser." 
No  druggist's  name  appeared  on  the  vial,  and  it  might  have 
been  only  a  joke  ;  yet  the  witness  had  heard  that  there  are 
really  poisons  which  leave  no  traces  discernible  by  the 
physician  or  the  chemist. 

In  concluding  this  chapter  we  mil  simply  mention  that 
John  had  already  died  in  Bellevue  Hospital ;  and  a  post- 
mortem examination  showed  that  the  ball  which  killed  him 
had  lodged  in  the  lower  part  of  the  spine,  after  cutting  an 
artery  which  determined  a  fatal  interior  hemorrhage. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

SOEROW  AND   CONSOLATIO]^. 

When  the  lifeless  body  of  young  Kirkbride  was  unex- 
pectedly found  in  his  bed,  the  first  concern  of  the  proprie- 
tor of  the  establishment,  as  soon  as  the  news  reached  him, 
was  to  enjoin  on  all  the  servants  acquainted  with  the  fact 
the  most  profound  secrecy.  They  were  not  to  say  a  word 
of  it,  either  in  the  house  or  out  of  it ;  and  to  keep  the  door 
locked.  His  only  reason  for  this  injunction  was  not  to  dis- 
turb his  customers.  A  death  in  the  house  is  always  an  un- 
pleasant affair  ;  but  a  death  in  the  actual  circumstances 
is,  for  most  people,  something  terrible.  He  knew  that  if  a 
great  number  of  men,  in  our  age,  do  not  bestow  the  least 
thought  on  the  demise  of  any  one,  and  consequently  cannot 
be  much  affected,  one  way  or  another,  by  the  news  of  it, 
there  is  always  a  certain  number  of  the  male  population 
who  take  it  to  heart,  and  become  nervous  on  the  subject. 
As  to  the  women  of  fashionable  society,  many  are  ready  to 
fall  into  hysterics,  at  the  barest  mention  of  death. 

Fortunately  for  the  proprietor  of  the  Great  Central  Hotel, 
it  was  on  a  Sunday  morning  that  the  fact  occurred,  and  the 
day  is  rather  queerly  kept,  in  our  time,  by  the  mass  of  the 
non-Catholic  population.  The  former  habit  of  a  great  num- 
ber of  citizens  spending  a  considerable  part  of  the  day  in 
church  is  now  gone  forever.  The  majority  of  fashionable 
people  waste  it  now  in  bed.  As  few  of  them,  comparatively, 
ever  condescend  to  enter  the  precincts  of  an  edifice  devoted 
to  the  worship  of  God,  and  as,  however,  the  custom  has 
not  yet  been  introduced  of  devoting  it  to  business  of  any 

354 


SORROW  AND  CONSOLATION.  355 

kind — and  it  is  very  fortunate  for  the  nation  that  it  is  so — 
there  is  no  better  way  to  beguile  the  lazy  hours  in  their 
slow  pace  than  by  contriving  to  be  half-conscious  on  a  soft 
couch,  in  the  dark  corner  of  a  luxurious  room,  with  heavy 
curtains  at  the  windows,  and  no  gas  or  lamp  burning  in- 
side. 

It  was,  therefore,  at  a  late  hour,  that  the  rumor  began  to 
spread  in  the  establishment,  that  an  accident  had  hap- 
pened during  the  night.  All,  of  course,  knew  Mr.  Fred- 
erick, but  nobody  then  boasted  of  it,  and  those  of  the 
inmates  who  had  mostly  contributed  to  his  fall  by  their 
baneful  advice,  appeared  to  have  known  him  less  than  any 
other.  The  body  was  left,  consequently,  to  its  fate,  in  the 
gloomy  room,  and  although  every  one  knew  that  there 
would  soon  be  a  coroner's  inquest  in  the  hotel,  they  were 
very  careful  not  to  ask  the  time  when  it  would  take  place  ; 
and  it  would  have  been  very  hard  to  say  who  would  be 
the  willing  witnesses  among  so  large  a  number  of  former 
friends,  who  could  be  called  to  give  their  testimony.  Many 
of  them  would  have  been  glad  to  be  far  away,  or  at  least 
in  a  different  quarter  of  the  city.  Some  went  so  far  as  to 
think  of  moving  away  suddenly,  and  going  to  take  their 
rooms  in  some  other  establishment.  Only  a  very  few  did 
it,  however,  through  fear  of  exciting  public  attention.  But 
the  whole  hotel  wore  an  air  of  solemnity,  which  rendered 
this  Sunday  a  peculiar  one  in  the  house. 

At  the  breakfast  table,  a  much  smaller  number  of  people 
than  usual  took  their  seats.  The  conversation  was  only 
carried  on  in  whispers,  from  one  neighbor  to  the  other,  and 
never  became  general.  Such  was  the  outside  aspect  of 
affairs,  on  that  day,  in  the  spacious,  but  apparently  empty 
apartments  of  the  Great  Central  Hotel  of  New  York. 

But  if  everything  appeared  to  be,  within  its  precincts, 
lifeless  and  without  animation  of  any  kind,  it  was  very  dif- 
ferent at  the  police  headquarters.  The  news  of  the  sudden 
death  of  young  Kirkbride  reached  the  place  very  soon  after 
it  had  been  first  discovered,  and  the  captain  on  duty  called 
directly  to  his  private  office  Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne,  who 


356  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

had  just  arrived  from  down  town.  He  imparted  to  him  the 
sad  news,  and  directed  him  to  have  it  conveyed  to  the  mo- 
ther of  the  unfortunate  young  man,  before  she  heard  of  it 
through  the  usual  channels  of  publicity.  Meanwhile,  all 
the  officers  and  the  simple  policemen  knew  it  already,  and 
were  canvassing  together  the  probable  consequences  of  it. 
For  several  days  things  had  happened  in  New  York  which 
were  calculated  to  stir  them  up,  and  rouse  them  from  their 
usual  apathy  and  good-natured  nonchalance.  The  fearful 
excitement  of  Black  Friday,  when  the  peace  and  good 
order  of  the  city  had,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  been  threat- 
ened with  the  greatest  dangers  and  commotions ;  the  bur- 
glary of  the  following  night,  and  the  public  highway  rob- 
beries, which  were  expected  to  become  of  common  occur- 
rence ;  the  ante-mortem  declaration  of  John,  at  Bellevue 
Hospital,  which  was  to  bring  disgrace  on  the  name  of  Kirk- 
bride  ;  finally,  the  inexplicable  death  of  the  young  man  him- 
self, forming  a  fit  climax  to  that  pyramid  of  horrors :  there 
was  in  all  these  circumstances  an  uncommon  concatenation 
of  events  just  of  a  nature  to  excite  and  convulse  the  feelings 
of  policemen,  or  they  would  have,  indeed,  been  apathetic. 

After  hearing  what  the  captain  on  duty  had  to  say,  Mr. 
Cornelius  O' Byrne,  throwing  himself  into  a  cab,  ordered 
the  driver  to  whip  his  horses  as  hard  as  the  ordinances 
of  the  city  and  the  imperious  will  of  Mr.  Bergh  allowed, 
and  the  vehicle  flew  rapidly  along  one  of  the  avenues  run- 
ning north.  The  young  man  felt  instinctively  that  the  lady 
to  whom  he  was  conveying  such  a  fearful  report  might 
die  on  first  hearing  it,  after  all  the  misfortunes  which  had 
already  fallen  on  her.  He  knew  her  virtues,  but  he  knew 
likewise  her  acute  feelings.  Had  not  her  heart  been  al- 
ready nearly  broken  by  so  many  domestic  events  of  the 
darkest  hue?  Was  not  this  last  shock  destined  to  sever 
the  sole  link  which  kept  her  attached  to  this  earth?  In 
one  sense,  certainly,  it  was  the  best  thing  which  could  have 
happened,  since,  had  Frederick  continued  to  live,  he  was 
doomed  to  the  cell  of  a  felon  and  to  the  disgrace  of  a  scamp. 
But  would  the  gentle  mother  take  this  view  of  the  case,  and 


SORROW  AWB  CONSOLATION,  357 

thank  God  that  at  least  the  name  of  her  former  husband 
had  not  suffered  this  last  dishonor  ?  Would  any  of  these 
considerations  so  much  as  present  themselves  to  her  mind  \ 
Would  she  not,  at  this  moment,  be  swayed  only  by  her 
motherly  affection  for  the  last  of  her  children?  Then, 
indeed,  it  was  a  terrible  thing  to  think  of  it  for  young 
O' Byrne!  For,  like  all  the  members  of  his  family,  he  felt 
such  a  veneration,  such  a  respectful  but  tender  affection 
for  the  lady,  that  he  w^ould  willingly  have  given  his  life  to 
save  hers.  He  was  in  the  midst  of  these  reflections  when 
the  carriage  stopped  at  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  house,  and  the 
young  man  alighted. 

The  lady  had  not  been  able  to  sleep  during  the  night,  or, 
rather,  she  had  been  fearfully  agitated,  and  all  the  details 
of  the  sad  events  of  the  two  or  three  previous  days  had 
haunted  her  imagination  in  spite  of  all  her  efforts  to  take 
rest.  When  the  carriage  arrived  she  was  dressing  with  the 
intention  of  going  back  to  her  son.  The  evening  previous 
the  physician  had  prevailed  on  her  to  leave  him  and  go 
home.  She  repented  of  having  done  so,  and  made  up  her 
mind  to  remain  with  him  till  his  full  recovery  or  his  death. 
This,  at  that  time,  was  Just  settled  in  her  head. 

Julia,  informed  of  the  sad  news  by  her  brother,  entered 
the  room  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  and,  with  assumed  simplicity, 
told  her  that  there  was  no  need  of  being  in  a  hurry  this 
Sunday  morning,  as  a  report  had  Just  arrived  that  jDer- 
mitted  her  to  stay  some  time  longer. 

''What  report?  what  news?"  exclaimed  the  poor  mo- 
ther; "has  something  happened  to  my  son  during  the 
night?" 

''Yes,"  answered  the  girl;  "the  doctor  who  was  with 
him  a  long  time  last  evening,  says  he  must  not  be  dis- 
turbed." 

"  I  won't  listen  to  that  doctor  any  more,"  said  the  lady  ; 
"my  presence  cannot  do  him  any  harm  ;  it  is  not  what  the 
physician  calls  'to  disturb  him,'  I  hope." 

"You  remember,  madam,"  Julia  remarked,  "he  said 
that  your  presence  produced  too  much  effect  on  his  nerves." 


358  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

"But,"  replied  the  lady,  ''Frederick  has  had  time  to  be- 
come calm." 

"Please  stay,  madam,"  interposed  Julia;  "your  pres- 
ence could  not  do  him  any  good." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ? "  ejaculated  the  mother.  "  Is  he 
dead?" 

"If  not  yet,"  replied  Julia,  "it  is  the  same  as  if  he 
was." 

"  Speak  clearly,  girl,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  out  of  breath 
and  nearly  suffocated  by  bursting  sobs  ;  and,  unable  to 
stand,  she  sat  down  or  rather  threw  herself  down  on  a  low 
rocking-chair.  Julia  instantly  stretched  herself  on  the 
carpet  near  her  ;  and  as  she  had  been  used  lately  to  a  great 
deal  of  simple  and  almost  infantine  familiarity  with  her, 
she  placed  her  head  on  the  heaving  bosom  of  the  lady,  and 
began  to  whisper  softly  :  "  No,  no,  it  is  not  true  what  you 
said  yesterday  on  coming  back  home,  that  soon  you  would 
not  be  a  mother  any  more  ;  you  are  still,  you  are  still ;  for 
I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  be  your  daughter,  and  you 
will,  I  hope,  allow  me  to  be  called  so." 

"Oh!  oh!"  sobbed  aloud  the  poor  lady,  who  saw  at 
once  the  meaning  of  the  good  girl ;  "so  my  Freddy  is  gone 
to  God  with  all  his  sins  on  him.  Oh,  my  heart  shall  break, 
my  heart  shall  break  !  " 

Julia  jumped  up,  rang  the  bell,  and  Rosa,  coming  in 
instantly,  was  sent  in  great  haste  for  Dr.  Dillon,  by  her. 
Then  she  had  scarcely  time  to  go  baciv  again  to  her  post 
and  stretch  herself  again  on  the  carpet,  when  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride fainted  outright,  and  fell  into  the  arms  of  the  Irish 
girl. 

Julia  unloosened  her  dress,  chafed  her  temples,  and 
placing  her  own  lips  on  those  of  the  lady,  revived  by  the 
gentle  warmth  of  her  breath,  the  drooping  courage  of  her 
mistress.  She  opened  her  eyes,  threw  around  Julia' s  waist 
her  inert  and  hanging  arms,  and  from  her  eyes  streamed  a 
flood  of  tears,  which  Julia  with  deep  sympathy  allowed  to 
flow,  without  moving,  to  run  and  bathe  her  face,  her  neck, 
her  bosom.     To  see  them  both  clasped  in  each  other's  arms, 


SORROW  AND  CONSOLATION.  359 

breathing  together,  weeping  together,  and  moved  by  the 
same  inward  feelings  of  grief,  sympathy  and  holy  affection, 
who  could  have  imagined  that  the  elder  one,  of  proud  and 
haughty  lineage,  hard  to  move  and  almost  inaccessible  to 
pity,  had  been  reared  in  affluence  and  had  spent  a  great 
part  of  her  life  in  the  enjoyment  of  almost  unbounded 
wealth  ;  whilst  the  younger  one,  descended  from  an  impul- 
sive race,  with  the  memory  of  a  long  train  of  wrongs  un- 
atoned  for,  had  been  cradled  and  rocked  by  poverty  and 
want,  reared  in  indigence,  and  pursued,  during  her  youth, 
by  an  unaccountable  and  undeserved  hatred  and  fury  ? 
The  holy  feeling  of  religion,  although  not  yet  complete  in 
both,  had  joined  what  the  events  of  a  thousand  years 
seemed  to  have  severed  and  separated  forever.  There  they 
were,  on  that  car^oet,  in  that  room,  the  real  and  true  picture 
of  a  deeply  afflicted  mother  and  of  a  sincerely  sympathizing 
daughter.  It  was  a  new  and  miraculous  birth ;  Louisa 
Kirkbride  had  become  the  mother  of  Julia  O' Byrne. 

They  had  had  time  to  recover  their  senses  and  compose 
themselves,  when  Dr.  Dillon  came.  He  was,  we  know,  an 
intimate  friend  of  the  lady,  with  whom  he  had  been  ac- 
quainted from  her  youth.  He  had  been  often  let  into  the 
secrets  of  the  family,  and  having  lately  frequently  visited 
Mrs.  Kirkbride,  he  knew  the  excessive  grief  she  felt  on 
account  of  her  son.  It  was  Julia,  who,  at  the  door,  first 
announced  to  him  the  death  of  the  wretched  young  man  as 
the  cause  of  the  sudden  extreme  affliction  of  the  mother. 
When  he  entered  the  room  of  the  lady,  she  rose  from  the 
lounge  where  Julia  had  x)laced  her  ;  but  the  doctor,  obliging 
her  to  resume  her  easy  position  necessary  to  the  physical 
weakness  consequent  upon  her  previous  excitement,  took 
his  seat  in  an  arm-chair  near  the  head  of  the  lounge,  felt 
her  pulse,  asked  a  few  questions,  and  then  said  : 

"  Julia  and  Rosa  will  nurse  you,  and  this  will  be  nothing, 
I  hojje." 

"-  The  wound  is  too  deep  there,"  said  the  lady  placing  her 
hand  on  her  heart,  ^ '  to  be  so  easil  y  healed  up.  I  shall,  doctor, 
carry  it  to  my  grave;  and  nothing  shall  ever  be  able  to 


360  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

efface  from  my  memory  the  terrible  domestic  events  I  have 
passed  through." 

"Patience,  in  this  case,"  replied  Dr.  Dillon,  "is  the 
remedy  prescribed  by  Horace." 

"Who  is  Horace? "  said  the  lady,  "  and  of  what  patience 
does  he  speak  ?" 

"He  was  a  pagan  poet,  madam,"  replied  the  physician, 
"and  the  patience  he  recommended  was  not,  consequently, 
Christian  patience." 

"  His  remedy,  therefore,"  observed  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  was 
a  mere  sham,  and  could  not  charm  the  evil." 

"You  are  about  right  there,"  the  good  doctor  replied; 
"and  as  I  am  nearly  of  your  opinion,  I  would  advise  you 
to  call  in  our  mutual  friend.  Dr.  Dixon." 

^'  It  was  my  first  thought,  doctor,"  said  the  lady,  "for  it 
was  not  I  who  called  you  ;  it  was  Julia,  when  I  fainted ; 
but  as  soon  as  I  woke  up  from  the  trance  I  thanked  her  for 
it ;  for  I  am  always  happy  to  see  you." 

After  chatting  together  for  a  few  moments  longer,  the 
physician  got  up  to  leave  the  room,  and  promising  to  return 
in  a  short  time,  he  left  a  few  ordinary  prescriptions,  and 
went  away. 

As  soon  as  Julia  came  back,  the  lady  directed  her  to  send 
right  off  for  the  widow's  son  who  generally  went  on  her 
errands,  and  began  to  write  the  note  he  was  to  carry.  The 
direction  of  the  note  struck  the  girl,  who  after  having  given 
it  to  the  boy,  went  to  her  own  apartment,  took  a  book 
which  she  often  used  herself,  and  went  back  to  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride's  room. 

"You  have  always  allowed  me,  madam,"     .     .     . 

"Call  me  mother,  at  least  to-day,  Julia,"  exclaimed  the 
lady,  interrupting  her.  "It  did  me  so  much  good  to  hear 
you  say  you  would  be  my  daughter ;  it  was  but  half  an 
hour  ago,  and  now  I  am  only  madam  !  " 

The  heart  of  Julia  swelled  in  her  bosom  when  she  heard 
these  words;  she  pushed  a  low  folding  stool  near  the 
lounge,  and  seating  on  it,  placed  sweetly  her  hand  in  that 


SORROW  AND  CONSOLATION.  361 

of  the  lady,  and  said  with  the  most  perfect  simplicity  and 
good  taste : 

' '  Dear  mother,  your  loving  daughter  wants  to  ask  you 
why  you  sent  for  Dr.  Dixon.  Do  you  expect  to  receive  any 
religious  consolation  from  him  ?  He  is  an  excellent  man, 
I  have  no  doubt ;  still,  he  will  administer  to  you  but  cold 
comfort.  Here  in  this  book  you  will  find  more  relief  for 
your  soul  than  in  all  the  fine  sentences  of  any  minister," 
and  she  gave  the  lady  the  book  she  had  brought.  It  was  a 
small  poorly  printed  volume,  with  the  title,  we  think,  of 
"Devotions  for  Afflicted  Souls."  It  was  translated  from 
the  French,  but  unabridged,  as  were  not  the  pretended 
"  translations"  edited  by  the  good  rector  of  Trinity  ;  and 
the  little  book  had  not  been  emasculated  by  suppressions 
and  cuttings  off  ;  so  that  all  the  sweet  belief  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church  was  there  ex]3ressed  and  warmly  poured  forth, 
without  being  frozen  by  the  blast  of  cold  mistrust  and 
symmetrized  sentiment. 

*'Well,  dear  child,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  ''I  will  read 
your  book  with  profit,  I  hope  ;  but  I  must  receive  Dr. 
Dixon  well,  when  he  comes,  as  he  has  always  been  a  good 
friend  to  me.  Leave  me  alone  ;  I  am  anxious  to  read  what 
you  brought  me,"  and,  kissing  the  girl,  she  dismissed  her. 

The  first  paragraphs  of  the  volume  appeared  dry  and  al- 
most unnatural,  as  the  translator  was  not  a  great  master  of 
English.  But,  when  the  lady  became  used  to  the  Frenchi- 
fied style,  the  substance  of  the  things  and  the  beauty  of  the 
thoughts  struck  her  ;  and  the  more  she  read,  the  more  she 
felt  it  went  to  her  heart ;  so  that  after  a  while  sweet  tears 
began  to  moisten  her  eyelids,  and  drop  down  one  after  ano- 
ther, and  bespatter  the  pages  of  the  book  with  large  circles 
of  warm  dew.  She  could  not  resume  her  work  with  the 
needle,  as  she  had  first  intended  to  do,  and  spent  a  great  part 
of  the  forenoon,  reading  on,  reading  on,  allowing  herself 
scarcely  a  moment  to  breathe  at  the  end  of  each  chapter. 

She  was  yet  enjoying  that  refreshing  consolation  always 
brought  on  by  holy  tears,  when  Dr.  Dixon  was  announced. 


362  LOUISA  kirkbhibe. 

He  liad  started  directly  on  receiving  the  note,  as  he  had 
just  done  preaching  for  that  Sunday  at  Trinity,  and  had 
heard  from  one  of  his  parishioners  the  great  news  of  the 
day — the  death  of  young  Kirkbride  at  the  Great  Central 
Hotel.  He  was  immediately  received  by  the  lady,  who  laid 
her  book  down,  wiped  away  a  few  remaining  drops  from 
her  eyes,  and  said,  with  evident  emotion ; 

* '  It  was  proper,  doctor,  in  this  my  affliction,  that  I  should 
call  you  to  my  side,  to  hear  the  words  of  comfort  which  the 
true  minister  of  God  always  keeps  in  reserve  for  the  af- 
flicted." 

"All  I  can  tell  you,  dear  madam,"  replied  the  Eev. 
doctor,  ' '  you  know  already.  Holy  Scripture  has  long  ago 
reminded  you  that  ^  in  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death,' 
and  that  '  whom  God  loveth  he  chastiseth.'  " 

The  fact  was,  that  so  seldom  at  that  time  was  the  good 
man  called  to  the  ''house  of  sorrow,"  and  so  accustomed 
were  then  the  members  of  his  flock  to  attend  to  their  own 
souls  without  his  help,  that  he  had  scarcely  any  experience 
in  the  way  of  dealing  with  "  afflicted  souls,"  and  he  could 
only  inflict  on  them  texts  of  Scripture  which,  as  he  justly 
observed,  "they  knew  as  well  as  himself."  Yet  the  Rev. 
gentleman  was  certainly  a  "  pious  man,"  and  tried  his  best 
to  fulfill  his  duty  as  "pastor  of  souls  ;"  but  Protestantism 
has,  by  its  doctrines  of  individualism,  and  the  denial  of 
"  secondary  mediators,"  so  much  dried  up  every  stream  of 
brotherly  sympathy,  that  those  even  who  endeavor  to  es- 
cape from  its  cold  embrace,  to  retrace  their  steps  to  the 
bosom  of  their  true  mother,  and  decline  taking  the  name  of 
Protestants,  do  not  know  how  to  do  it,  and  cannot  enter 
into  the  wide  company  of  the  children  of  God,  to  either 
partake  of  the  joys  of  other  souls,  or  to  see  their  sorrows 
assuaged  by  the  contemplation  of  those  of  others.  Thus, 
probably,  the  good  doctor  himself  felt  when  the  lady  pre- 
sented to  him  the  little  book  she  had  been  reading.  He 
was  x)iizzled,  when  glancing  on  its  pages,  he  remarked  that 
deep  and  tender  words  of  commiseration  were  put  succes- 
sively— in  the  mouth  of  Our  Blessed  Lady,  of  St.  Joseph, 


SORROW  AND  CONSOLATION.  363 

of  St.  John,  who  stood  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  of  the  mar- 
tyrs of  God  who  had  died  by  the  rack,  by  fire,  or  the  teeth 
of  wild  beasts  ;  on  the  lips  of  more  modern  Christians  who 
had  been  afflicted  in  a  thousand  ways,  ''being  really  chas- 
tised because  they  were  loved."  Thus  the  numerous  "de- 
votions" contained  in  this  little  book  were,  in  fact,  all  of 
one  kind ;  they  were  only  the  sighs  and  sobs  of  those  who 
had  followed  the  Lamb,  and  walked  in  the  footsteps  of 
Christ  to  Calvary,  to  console  their  living  afflicted  brethren 
by  the  sweetness  they  had  derived  from  the  wounds  of  the 
Saviour. 

"  I  never  saw  this  little  book  before,  my  dear  madam,"  Dr. 
Dixon  said,  returning  the  volume.  "  If  I  ever  gave  an  edi- 
tion of  it,  as  I  have  done  of  other  French  devotional  works, 
I  would  take  the  liberty  of  making  several  changes,  which 
would  adapt  the  volume  to  the  needs  of  modern  Christians." 

"What  changes  would  you  suggest  ? "  rejoined  the  lady. 

"  Oh,  a  great  many,"  he  said  ;  "as  there  are  many  facts 
that  criticism  could  attack,  and  which  could  be,  with  ad- 
vantage, replaced  with  texts  of  Holy  Scripture." 

"For  me,"  retorted  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  "I  do  not  see  what 
better  consolation  can  be  offered  to  those  who,  like  me, 
shed  tears,  than  the  remembrance  of  the  multitudes  that 
have  suffered  before  us,  and  taught  us  how  to  sanctify  our 
afflictions." 

The  doctor  then  saw  that  he  could  never  do  so  well  him- 
self for  the  object  he  had  been  called  to  effect,  as  these 
"Catholic  Devotions"  could,  with  all  their  unaffected  sim- 
plicity ;  nay,  with — may  we  not  say  precisely,  on  account 
of — their  want  of  criticism.  He,  therefore,  spoke  gently 
and  quietly  for  a  few  moments  with  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  and 
promising  her  that  he  would  officiate  at  the  funeral  of  her 
unfortunate  son,  he  soon  withdrew.  It  was  wisely  arranged 
that  the  burial  service  should  be  performed  with  as  much 
secrecy  and  modesty  as  possible. 

When  the  reverend  gentleman  had  left,  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
called  Julia  to  her  room,  and  said,  sadly  and  feelingly  : 

"It  was  as  you  said,  dear  daughter;  your  little  book  is 


364  LOUISA  EIREBIIIDE. 

more  powerful  than  Dr.  Dixon  could  be;  lie  has  left  me 
cold,  when  your  '  Devotions '  had  already  warmed  my  heart. 
But  what  am  I  to  do  ;  I  cannot  say.  My  religion  has  been 
to  me,  through  life,  such  a  source  of  good  and  happiness, 
that  it  would  be  really  ungrateful  in  me  to  change  it ;  and 
yet  I  am,  and  for  a  long  time  have  been,  instinctively  at- 
tracted toward  yours.     I  am  really  puzzled." 

^'God  forbid,  madam,"  exclaimed  Julia,  "that  I  should 
tempt  you  to  change  your  religion !  It  is  not  your  genuine 
religious  feelings  that  are  to  be  changed.  See  how  you 
always  agreed  fully  with  my  poor  mother,  when  she  lived, 
and  with  me,  whenever  I  spoke  to  you  of  my  faith.  You 
protested  one  day,  to  my  mother,  that  you  were  a  '  Catho- 
lic,' and  so  you  are,  and  have  been.  But  what  you  have  to 
reject,  is  only  the  paltry  show  of  Episcopalianism,  as  it  is 
called,  which  does  not  give  you  true  Sacraments,  nor  true 
priests,  nor  true  intercessors  in  heaven.  AH  these  things 
you  need,  you  look  for,  you  even  long  for  ;  and  it  is  only 
the  Catholic  Church  that  can  give  them  to  you." 

''You  may  be  right,  child,"  suggested,  with  a  sigh,  Mrs. 
Kirkbride.  "But  the  thing  is  more  difficult  than  you 
imagine.  By-and-by,  however,  we  will  think  of  it,  and,  I 
promise  you,  it  will  be  before  long.  Meanwhile,  my  soul 
is  distracted  ;  I  want  sleep  ;  give  me  that  potion  left  by  Dr. 
Dillon ;  he  said  that,  when  I  should  feel  the  need  of  rest, 
by  taking  it  I  would  find  rest." 

It  was  brought  to  her ;  she  swallowed  it ;  and  walking, 
with  the  help  of  Julia,  to  her  bed  in  the  next  room,  she  was 
soon  fast  asleep. 


CHAPTER  XXIY. 

DOMESTIC    DETAILS    OF  A  MOKE  SOOTHING  NATURE. 

When  Julia  went  down,  she  fonnd  Rosa  reading  a  letter 
tlie  postman  had  just  brought  her.  It  came  from  England, 
and  it  was  from  her  father.  We  know  yet  very  little  of 
Rosa ;  and,  as  she  is  not  destined  to  be  a  cipher  in  this 
story,  the  reader  will,  no  doubt,  be  glad  that  there  is  actu- 
ally a  fair  occasion  to  know  something  more  of  her.  Being 
much  younger  than  Julia,  and  having  never  been  tried  by 
so  sad  an  experience  of  life,  her  temper  was  much  more 
gay,  and  her  feelings  much  more  buoyant.  Perhaps  this 
came  in  part  from  her  mother,  whose  blood  coursed  in  her 
veins,  though  she  had  never  known  her.  But  the  most 
visible  cause  of  it  was  Mrs.  Kirkbride  herself.  Having  been 
given  over  to  her  charge  when  she  was  a  mere  infant,  she 
called  her  mother  at  first ;  and,  although  she  was  chided, 
nay,  jjunished  for  it,  she  could  not  drive  the  idea  from  her 
head  that  she  had  a  true  mother  in  that  lady.  Even,  after 
little  Janet  died,  and  when,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Kirkbride, 
she  was  placed  among  the  servants,  she  received  so  many 
tokens  of  affection  from  her  dear  mistress,  that  she  thought 
more  of  her  than  of  anybody  else  in  the  world.  It  is  not 
surprising,  therefore,  that,  having  her  sweet  figure  con- 
stantly under  her  eyes  and  in  her  imagination,  she  natu- 
rally copied  it  to  the  best  of  her  incipient  ability,  and,  for 
instance,  tried  to  reflect  in  herself  much  more  the  unaffected 
graces  of  the  lady  than  the  coarse  manners  of  Miss  Fanny, 
or  the  pretentious  airs  of  Miss  Yictorina.  The  reader,  we 
suppose,  has  not  yet  forgotten  them. 

365 


366  LOUISA  EIBKBRIDE. 

Eosa,  consequently,  was,  from  the  start,  a  sweet  and  gay 
little  thing,  and  grew  up  gradually  sweeter  and  gayer. 
Whenever  her  mistress  sent  her  on  an  errand,  she  was 
remarked  everywhere  for  her  affectionate  disposition  and 
simple  and  artless  demeanor.  There  was,  also,  something 
so  ladylike  and  refined  in  her  deportment,  that,  although 
she  never  wore  a  silk  dress,  she  was  sometimes  taken  by 
the  friends  of  the  Kirkbride  family,  who  had  never  seen 
her  before,  for  a  true  young  relative  of  the  lady.  It  gave 
occasion,  sometimes,  to  laughable  mistakes,  and  Rosa  was 
invariably  the  first  to  find  out  the  mistake,  and  the  one  to 
laugh  most  heartily  at  it. 

She  occupied  in  the  new  house,  after  they  left  Madison 
Avenue,  a  very  small  room  by  herself  in  the  basement,  and 
thus  she  was  nearer  to  the  yard,  which,  we  know,  had  been 
transformed  into  a  little  garden.  Every  morning  in  spring 
and  summer,  after  having  said  her  prayers,  she  cut  a  few  of 
the  newly  ox')en  blossoms  hanging  on  the  twigs  of  the  exotics 
planted  there,  and  carried  them  up  to  the  room  of  Mrs. 
Kirkbride,  who  had  then  just  risen  and  was  dressing  in 
the  little  cabinet  near  her  bedroom.  She  received  as  a  re- 
w^ard  sometimes  a  kiss,  sometimes  only  a  smile,  but  always 
accompanied  with  some  kind  word  or  other.  She  had  her- 
self always  some  remark  to  make  on  the  flowers  she  brought, 
and  there  was  invariably  wit  and  humor,  as  well  as  simpli- 
city and  affection,  in  every  word  she  uttered. 

But  what  about  the  terrible  events  that  have  been  nar- 
rated ?  Did  she  feel  them  as  keenly  as  the  other  inmates 
of  the  house  ?  Did  they  exert  on  her  temper  a  depressing 
effect,  so  as  to  render  her  as  unhappy  as  two  very  worthy 
female  friends  that  we  know  ?  By  no  means  ;  and  the  reader 
must  not  conclude  from  this  that  she  was  insensible,  in  fact, 
thick-vskinned.  The  poor  child  never  had  any  idea  of  the 
extent  of  the  terrible  misfortunes  which  had  fallen  on  Mrs. 
Kirkbride.  She  had  been  apprised  formerly  of  the  cliief 
circumstances  of  the  catastrophe  in  the  Adirondacks,  and 
she  had  shared  in  the  grief  of  her  mistress.  But  every  mar- 
ried woman  can  expect  to  lose  her  husband  at  some  time  or 


DOMESTIC  DETAILS  OF  A  MORE  SOOTHmO  NATURE.    367 

other  ;  and  Rosa  did  not  imagine  that  her  mistress  had  any 
peculiar  reason  for  feeling  his  loss  all  her  life.  The  break- 
ing np  of  the  household  of  the  family  in  Madison  Avenue 
had  at  first  produced  some  depressing  effect  on  her  temper. 
But  after  a  while  she  was  very  well  pleased  with  the  change. 
Mrs.  Kirkbride,  with  her  annuity,  was  yet  rich  ;  and  the 
absence  of  the  former  servants  in  the  big  house  pleased  her 
mightily.  She  had  Julia  besides  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  and  this 
was  enough.  The  wretched  doings  of  young  Mr.  Frederick 
could  not  affect  her  as  deeply  as  Miss  0' Byrne,  because  she 
was  not  like  her  the  confidante  of  her  mistress,  and  knew 
very  little  of  the  deep  injuries  inflicted  on  the  mother  by 
the  son.  It  is  true  that  at  last,  when  the  crash  came,  she 
became  acquainted  with  many  of  the  damnable  freaks  of 
the  young  man,  and  she  was  sadly  affected  by  all  she  heard 
of  the  losses  of  the  young  gambler,  which  would  ultimately 
recoil  on  the  lady,  and  reduce  her  very  low  indeed  in  life. 
But  beyond  this,  she  knew  nothing,  and  had  not  even  heard 
of  the  disgrace  brought  on  the  house  by  the  crimes  of  the 
only  son  and  heir.  As  everybody  treated  her  yet  like  a 
little  girl,  nothing  of  what  went  directly  to  the  heart  was 
intimated  to  her.  So  she  was  always  the  same  gay  little 
creature,  when  she  received  the  letter  we  mentioned.  We 
remember  poor  Carty,  who  had  formerly  given  his  little 
daughter  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  For  a  long  time  after  the  day 
on  which  the  child  left  England  for  the  United  States,  he 
wrote  once  a  month  to  the  lady  to  inquire  after  his  child, 
whom  he  really  loved.  But  when  the  little  girl  grew  up, 
and  began  to  scribble  herself,  and  to  send  letters  of  a  few 
lines  to  her  father,  the  good  man,  perceiving  how  she  was 
contented  and  really  happy,  ceased  to  be  so  anxious  about 
her  ;  until  many  affairs  which  engrossed  his  mind  made  him 
almost  forget  Rosa  ;  and  lately  the  young  girl — for  she  was 
now  a  young  girl — had  expressed  the  fear  that  her  dear  papa 
was  dead,  since  he  had  not  written  for  more  than  a  year. 

But  now  a  large  package  had  come  to  her  address,  and 
together  with  a  letter  for  herself,  there  was  a  big  one  for  the 
lady.     Julia,  we  said,  found  her  reading  it,  and  on  her  face 


368  LOUISA  EIBKBRIDE. 

you  could  see  sudden  clianges  of  feeling,  as  tlie  words  of 
her  father  excited  in  her  joy,  or  a  little  anxiety,  or  sur- 
prise, or  what  not ;  her  cheeks  were  alternately  white  or 
red,  or  both  together. 

"See,  Julia,"  she  exclaimed,  "what  my  father  wrote  to 
me  ;  read  yourself,  and  you  will  be  pleased." 

Julia  was  lately  so  familiar  with  her  younger  friend  that 
she  did  not  offer  any  objection,  and  read  the  following 
words : 

"My  deae  Rosa  : — I  have  lately  neglected  you,  and  you 
must  have  been  surprised  at  my  silence ;  but  I  cannot  delay 
any  longer,  as  I  have  many  things  of  importance  to  com- 
municate CO  you.  I  had  for  a  long  time  almost  laid  aside 
the  practice  of  my  religion  ;  and  even  before  you  left  me,  I 
was  far  from  being  a  fervent  Christian.  On  this  account  I 
did  not  mention  anything  on  the  subject  to  the  lady  who 
took  you  from  me,  and  who  appears  to  have  been  a  true 
mother  for  you.  But  lately  some  missionaries,  real  men  of 
God,  preached  in  St.  George's  Church  a  course  of  evening 
sermons  lasting  three  weeks.  I  went  to  hear  them  at  first 
through  curiosity  ;  but  finally  they  opened  my  eyes,  and  I 
am  now,  what  I  ought  to  have  been  all  the  time,  a  practical 
Catholic. 

"Now,  my  dear  child,  you  must  know  that  you  have 
been  baptized  in  the  Holy  Catholic  Church.  Your  mother, 
a  most  pious,  affectionate,  and,  I  may  say,  holy  woman, 
when  she  saw  herself  dying,  after  having  brought  you,  her 
first  child,  to  light,  made  me  promise  most  solemnly  to 
bring  you  up  in  the  practice  of  the  true  religion.  I  did  it 
as  long  as  you  remained  with  me  ;  but  when  I  thought  it 
advantageous  to  yourself  to  give  you  up  to  another,  I  did 
not,  through  false  shame,  impose  any  condition  to  that 
effect.  I  hope  it  is  not  too  late,  and  I  beg  of  you  to  give 
the  inclosed  letter  to  the  lady  who  took  charge  of  you. 

"Remember,  dearest  Rosa,  that  your  mother,  now  in 
heaven,  wants  you  to  be  what  she  was  herself,  a  sincere 
Catholic.     Oh,  if  you  had  known  her!    How  you  would 


DOMESTIC  DETAILS  OF  A  MORE  SOOTHING  NATURE.    369 

have  loved  her !  You  cannot  know  and  love  her  in  another 
life  without  practicing  the  religion  she  practiced  herself. 
I  hope,  therefore,  that  as  soon  as  you  receive  this,  you  will 
place  yourself  in  the  hands  of  a  good  Catholic  clergyman  of 
your  neighborhood  to  be  instructed ;  and  to  obviate  all 
difficulty,  I  inclose  a  certificate  of  your  baptism,  which  I 
have  just  obtained  from  the  very  priest  who  performed  the 
ceremony,  and  who  lives  still  in  the  same  parish.  I  am  sure 
that  the  lady  with  whom  you  are,  will  not  object,  when  she 
knows  all  those  circumstances.  I  repeat  them  in  the  letter 
which  you  will  yourself  give  her. 

''I  have  moreover  to  inform  you,  my  darling  child,  that 
your  name  is  not  Carty,  but  MacCarthy.  I  do  not  know 
really  what  possessed  me  when  I  changed  my  name  ;  as  if 
I  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  being  directly  known  as  an  Irish- 
man. Your  mother  was  an  O'Brien;  and  both  names  go 
so  well  together  that  all  Munster  people,  and  others  too, 
will  embrace  you  when  they  know  it. 

^ '  Now,  my  dearest,  answer  me  directly  ;  and  tell  me  that 
you  are  glad  yourself  to  become  acquainted  at  once  with 
so  many  strange  things.     You  will  fill  my  heart  with  joy, 
and  receive  from  me  a  thousand  blessings. 
"  Your  loving  father, 

*'T.  McCaethy." 

As  soon  as  Julia  had  finished  reading  she  looked  at  Rosa, 
who  returned  her  look  with  an  arch  smile. 

*'Now,  what  wiU  you  do  ?"  said  the  first. 

"  I  leave  it  to  you  to  find  out,"  answered  the  second. 

''Then  I  know  how  it  will  be,"  remarked  the  first. 

''And  how  will  it  be ? "  said  the  second. 

"It  will  be  so  that  you  shall  not  go  any  more  to  Trinity 
Chapel,"  affirmed  Julia. 

"Certainly  not,"  Rosa  assented,  and  both  were  directly 
locked  in  each  other's  arms. 

This  first  burst  of  emotion  over,  Rosa  said  to  her  friend  : 
"I  am  so  glad  that  after  all  I  am  an  Irish  girl ;  I  felt  it  all 
along.  You  see,  Julia,  when  we  lived  in  the  great  house  in 
24 


370  LOUISA  KIRKBRLDE. 

Madison  Avenue,  there  were  at  the  time  many  servants, 
all  of  different  tongues  and  countries.  Frenchmen,  Swiss, 
English,  Americans  ;  there  was  not  a  single  one  of  them  to 
whom  I  could  open  myself.  But  whenever  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
sent  me  to  the  shanty,  either  when  the  Dolan  family  lived 
in  it  or  afterward,  when  you  arrived,  I  found  myself  quite 
at  home  with  the  people  there.  Since  we  came  to  reside  in 
this  house  you  have  been  my  good  angel ;  I  could  scarcely 
live  without  you.  My  happiness  chiefly  has  been  to  go 
often  to  church  with  you  on  Sundays  ;  the  words  of  the  old 
priest  that  used  to  preach  went  to  my  heart ;  and  the  silence 
and  piety  of  the  packed  congregation  often  moved  me  to 
tears.  When,  on  the  contrary,  Mrs.  Kirkbride  took  me  to 
Trinity  Chapel,  although  you  know  that  my  heart  is  wdth 
the  lady  as  with  you,  and  I  consider  her  almost  as  my 
mother,  yet  in  that  heavily  ornamented  and  gloomy  edifice  I 
could  never  persuade  myself  that  I  was  in  the  house  of  God. 
The  sight  of  the  well-dressed  and  demure  people  produced 
on  me  the  effect  of  a  tea-drinking  party,  and  the  pompous 
and  solemn-looking  minister  could  not  inspire  me  with  any 
feelings  but  those  of  awe  and  fear.  I  confess  I  could  not 
explain  to  myself  the  cause  of  the  difference,  until  I  received 
to-day  this  letter.  Whatever  pleases  you  must  please  me, 
and  whatever  grates  on  your  feelings  must  grate  on  mine. 
In  fact,  we  are  two  sisters ;  and  it  would  be  very  strange 
that  having  the  same  blood  in  our  veins  we  should  differ  in 
inclination  and  aims.  From  what  I  have  just  told  you,  you 
may  infer  what  I  intend  to  tell  Mrs.  Kirkbride  when,  after 
she  has  read  the  letter  of  my  father,  she  asks  me  Avhat  I 
propose  to  do.  I  have  no  doubt:  that  she  will  tenderly 
embrace  me  and  tell  me  I  am  right ;  and  I  will  tell  you 
what  we  must  do  to  establish  complete  religious  unity  in 
the  house :  we  must  carry  her  bodily,  if  necessary,  to  our 
church  on  Sundays,  and  not  allow  her  to  go  any  more  to 
Trinity  Chapel."  And  the  girl  burst  out  in  a  good  fit  of 
well-meaning  laughter  in  uttering  the  last  i)hrase. 

^' You  joke,"  said  Julia,  "in  giving  me  that  piece  of  ad- 
vice.   For  my  part,  I  would  not  move  a  finger  to  induce  the 


DOMESTIC  DETAILS  OF  A  MORE  SOOTHING  NATURE.    371 

good  lady  to  any  step  not  perfectly  in  keeping  with  lier 
own  will ;  but  I  am  sure  that,  without  using  any  other 
effort  than  coaxing,  we  shall  bring  her  to  it,  as  she  is  per- 
fectly in  accord  with  our  holy  faith,  and  has  at  bottom  no 
other  religion  than  we  have.  The  last  step  will  consist  for 
her  in  asking  instruction  from  the  venerable  man  of  God 
who  assisted  my  mother  at  her  death  ;  and  to  begin  with  it, 
you  will  do  well  to  come  with  me  to  mass  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, and  speak  to  the  clergyman,  according  to  the  direction 
of  your  father,  in  order  that  he  may  teach  you  your  reli- 
gious duties,  and  prepare  you  for  your  first  communion." 

They  had  just  finished  talking,  when  the  bell  was  heard  at 
the  door,  and,  on  opening  it,  Julia  found  her  brother,  look- 
ing sad  and  serious,  and  asking  to  see  her  privately  for  a 
moment.  ''I  come  to  tell  you,  my  dear  sister,"  he  said, 
*' that  Mrs.  Kirkbride  is  going  to  be  reduced  to  real  pov- 
erty. The  fate  of  her  miserable  son  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  district  attorney,  who  was  going  to  prosecute  him  crim- 
inally when  he  died,  just  in  time  to  escape  infamy.  But, 
from  what  I  hear,  he  had  already  gone  through  the  whole 
wealth  of  his  father ;  so  that  the  widowed  mother  cannot 
expect  to  receive  a  penny  of  her  annuity.  She  will  be  re- 
duced to  live  on  the  rent  of  her  house  in  Madison  Avenue, 
which  could  not  be  touched  by  Mr.  Frederick.  She  will 
have,  consequently,  to  leave  even  her  present  quarters,  and 
take  lodgings  in  some  out-of-the-way  place.  I  do  not  think 
that  she  will  be  able  to  keep  a  single  servant  with  her,  and 
to  pay  wages  to  anybody.  Of  course,  I  do  not  come  to  ask 
you  to  communicate  to  her  this  sad  news,  as  she  will  soon 
hear  it  from  her  attorney  ;  but  my  object  is  merely  to  give 
you  time  to  reflect  on  wiiat  your  own  interest  requires  of 
you,  and,  as  soon  as  you  have  decided,  you  will  let  me 
know,  and  I  will  do  my  best  to  forward  your  views." 

"So,  Con,  my  friend,"  answered  Julia,  "what  you  come 
to  tell  me  amounts  to  this  :  '  As  long  as  your  staying  with 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  useful  to  you,  and  offered  you  a  better 
position  than  you  could  find  elsewhere,  you  did  well  to  stay 
with  her ;  but,  now  that  she  will  be  scarcely  able  to  give 


372  LOUISA  KIREBRLDE. 

you  food  and  clothing,  and  that,  in  the  isolation  she  will  be 
reduced  to,  you  cannot  expect  to  find  a  husband,  your 
interest  is  to  leave  the  old  woman  to  her  sad  fate,  although, 
in  the  time  of  her  prosperity,  she  treated  with  such  kind- 
ness our  whole  family,  but  chiefly  our  poor  mother.  She 
cannot  be  any  more  useful  to  us,  so  we  had  better  drop  her 
at  once,  and  allow  her  to  retire  into  some  obscure  corner,  to 
die  of  want,  and  out  of  the  pale  of  human  society.'  This 
is  your  meaning,  my  dear  brother,  and  I  wonder  at  it.  I 
thought  you  could  never  come  so  low,  in  point  of  self- 
ishness, and  that,  at  least,  you  would  always  have  sense 
enough  to  see  that  such  a  temptation  can  have  no  effect 
whatever  on  me.  I  love  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  I  just  promised 
her  yesterday  to  remain  her  daughter  all  her  life,  and  I 
intend  to  keep  my  promise." 

''Julia,"  said  Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne,  blushing,  ''I recog- 
nize you  at  these  words,  and  I  beg  of  you  to  believe  that 
my  object  was  not  so  much  to  tempt  you,  as  to  see  how 
you  would  take  it,  and  what  declaration  it  would  draw 
from  you.  I  rejoice  that  you  show  yourself  such  a  thor- 
ough Munster  girl  in  impulsiveness  and  affection.  Know, 
moreover,  that  you  have  the  approval  of  our  father,  to 
whom  I  communicated  the  object  of  this  visit  to  you.  '  I 
shall  not,'  he  said,  'acknowledge  any  more  Julia  for  my 
daughter,  if  she  is  base  enough  to  leave  such  a  good  lady, 
to  whom  we  are  so  much  indebted,  alone.  But  I  know,' 
he  added,  '  that  there  is  nothing  of  the  kind  to  fear  from 
her,  and  that  she  will  show  herself  worthy  of  her  race  and 
country. '  But,  my  dear  Julia,  this  noble  determination  on 
your  part  does  not  prevent  you  from  examining  attentively 
what  it  will  cost  you.  You  will  have  no  society  whatever, 
the  whole  day  long,  and  your  occupations  will  be  so  inces- 
sant and  heavy  that  you  will  not  be  even  able  to  enjoy  the 
society  of  dear  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  except  by  chance  and  for  a 
few  moments.  And,  as  you  rightly  said,  you  must  give  up 
the  idea  of  ever  finding  a  husband,  and  forming  for  your- 
self a  quiet  home,  which  is  the  great  aspiration  of  girls  in 
your  position.     But  God  will  bless  your  sacrifice,  and  you 


DOMESTIC  DETAILS  OF  A  MORE  SOOTHING  NATURE.    373 

are  strong  enongh  to  look  at  the  prospect  coolly,  and  un- 
derstand the  case  perfectly  beforehand." 

"  You  make  it,  however,  really  worse  than  it  is,"  rejoined 
the  sister,  "for  I  will  not  remain  alone  with  the  lady. 
Rosa  will  certainly  share  with  me  the  trouble  and  labor. 
We  are  already  agreed  on  the  subject,  so  that  you  need  not 
be  afraid  that  I  will  have  more  to  do  than  I  can." 

"^Yho  is  that  Rosa?"  inquired  Mr.  O' Byrne ;  ''is  she 
the  little  girl  who  used  formerly  to  come  to  the  shanty  on 
errands  from  Mrs.  Kirkbride  ? ' ' 

"The  same,"  answered  Julia,  "  but  no  longer  a  little  girl. 
In  a  year  more  or  so  she  A\all  be  able  to  become  your  wife, 
and  you  might,  indeed,  make  a  worse  choice,"  added  Julia 
with  an  arch  smile. 

"iS'onsense,  sister,"  exclaimed  Mr.  O'Byrne  ;  "you  know 
that  I  shall  never  marry  any  one  but  an  Irish  girl,  and  this 
one  is,  I  think,  English,  or  something  of  the  kind." 

"Nonsense,  Mr.  Con,"  rejoined  the  sister;  "this  one  is  as 
much  Irish  as  you  and  I ;  her  father  is  a  MacCarthy  and 
her  mother  w^as  an  O'Brien." 

"Gracious  heavens,"  exclaimed  Mr.  O'Byrne,  bursting 
with  laughter,  "if  the  young  lady  suits  me  and  I  suit  her, 
our  children  will  have  in  their  veins  some  of  the  blood  of 
all  our  former  Munster  kings.  Indeed  you  astonish  me, 
sissy." 

"Hold  your  tongue,"  said  Julia,  with  a  subdued  voice ; 
"  I  hear  her  coming." 

In  fact,  Rosa,  perfectly  unaware  that  her  friend  was 
engaged  with  her  brother,  was,  at  that  moment,  coming  doAvn 
the  stairs  with  a  light  foot  and  a  lighter  heart,  singing  and 
tossing  her  head  as  if  keeping  time  with  the  tune  ;  and 
when  she  reached  the  door  of  the  room,  she  turned  the 
knob  without  knocking,  and  pushed  in  the  door  as  if  it  were 
her  own  apartment ;  and  her  thoughts  were  so  intent  on 
what  occupied  her  mind,  that  she  did  not  see  anybody  in 
the  room  but  Julia.  So  she  went  straight  to  her,  clasped 
her  in  her  arms,  and  exclaimed  : 

"It  is  just  as  I  told  you  ;  Mrs.  Kirkbride  read  the  letter 


374  LOUISA  KIRKBRIBE. 

with  pleasure,  and  not  only  leaves  me  free  to  do  what  I 
please,  but  moreover  says  that  I  am  a  happy  girl,  and  she 
herself  would  like  to  have  no  more  difficulty  to  take  the 
same  step.     She  was  in  bed  and  just  awake  when  ..." 

At  that  very  moment  her  eye  caught  sight  of  Con ;  she 
appeared  dumbfounded,  blushed  deeply,  stopped  speaking, 
and,  making  a  courtesy  to  the  young  man,  was  about  to 
withdraw,  when  Julia  detained  her,  obliged  her  to  sit  down, 
and  told  her  there  could  be  no  more  secret  for  her  brother 
than  for  herself.  In  fact  she  began  to  relate  to  Con  the 
substance  of  the  letter  lately  received  by  Rosa,  and  the  hap- 
piness the  girl  felt  at  the  idea  of  having  been  baptized 
a  Catholic  at  her  birth,  and  of  going  in  a  few  days  to 
be  instructed  for  communion. 

Rosa  seemed  passive  during  all  this  time.  She  knew  the 
young  man  well  by  sight,  but  never  had  an  opportunity  of 
speaking  to  him.  She  kept  her  eyes  down,  her  tongue  still, 
her  body  immovable,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  her  life,  a 
sweet  and  innocent  feeling  of  gentle  warmth  around  the 
heart  spread  itself  gently  through  her  whole  person,  in  the 
presence  of  the  brother  of  her  friend  Julia. 

When  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  went  home  that  day,  he 
reflected  seriously  on  the  strange  occurrences  which  had  just 
taken  place,  and  at  first  seemed  to  entertain  something  like 
a  desire  to  see  the  prophecy  of  his  sister  fulfilled.  ''Pshaw," 
he  exclaimed  at  last,  ''she  is  sweet  and  nice,  but  she  is  yet 
a  little  girl,  and  the  thought  of  it  is  almost  ludicrous.  I 
am  glad,  however,  that  my  sister  has  such  a  friend  in  the 
house.  With  Mrs.  Kirkbride  and  Rosa,  she  will  not  be 
left  desolate  in  her  sacrifice,  and  my  father  and  myself  will 
be  able  to  visit  them,  and  not  find  them  in  tears,  I  hope." 
And  with  such  hope  Mr.  C.  O' Byrne  felt  a  great  deal  less 
depressed  in  spirits  than  when  he  first  started  to  go  and  see 
his  sister. 

On  that  very  day,  however,  the  dwelling  of  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride became  a  "house  of  sorrow."  The  coroner's  inquest 
on  the  remains  of  Mr.  Frederick  at  the  G.  C.  Hotel  having 
been  gone  through,  ending  in  a  kind  of  incomprehensible 


DOMESTIC  DETAILS  OF  A  MOBE  SOOTHING  NATURE.    375 

verdict,  the  coffin  was  removed  to  the  place  which  the 
young  man  had  never  visited  but  twice  in  his  life  ;  and  a 
couple  of  days  later  the  funeral  took  place  without  scarcely 
any  ceremony.  No  invitations  were  issued,  but  only  a 
notice  in  the  papers  ;  a  few  friends  of  the  family  met  in 
Trinity  Chapel,  where  Dr.  Dixon,  following  his  innate  sense 
of  propriety  and  taste,  contented  himself  with  performing 
the  Episcopalian  service,  without  adding  a  word  of  his  own  ; 
and  thus,  after  less  than  half  an  hour  of  mournful  singing 
and  cold  prayers,  consigning  "dust  to  dust,  and  ashes  to 
ashes,"  the  body  was  taken  to  Greenwood,  followed  by  a 
few  carriages,  and  placed  alongside  of  the  remains,  already 
moldering,  of  his  father. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

A  NEW  TUEN  IIS-  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS,  AND  A  STIE  AT  POLICE 
HEADQUAETEES. 

A  FEW  days  of  rest  and  complete  retirement  enabled  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  at  last  to  look  calmly  at  her  situation  ;  and,  dis- 
patching a  note  to  Mr.  Wilson,  she  requested  the  gentle- 
man to  come  and  render  her  an  unvarnished  account  of  her 
prospects.  The  first  outlook  was  far  from  encouraging. 
The  worthy  attorney  had  not  had  time  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  any  details.  As,  by  the  will  of  Mr.  E.  Kirk- 
bride, all  the  property  reverted  to  his  wife  in  case  the  son 
died  without  issue,  everything  had  been  transferred,  or  was 
in  the  act  of  being  transferred,  to  the  widow.  Most  of  the 
papers,  documents,  accounts  in  banks,  private  accounts, 
etc.,  had  already  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Wilson. 
Large  files  of  papers,  which  had  belonged  to  the  father,  and 
had  never  been  thoroughly  examined  by  the  son,  came  in, 
likewise,  and  it  would  take  several  months,  and  the  employ- 
ment of  one  or  two  accountants,  to  sift  everything,  and 
come  to  an  exact  understanding  of  the  situation.  All  Mr. 
Wilson  could  say  was,  that  all  the  ostensible  property  left 
by  the  father — interest  in  the  commercial  house,  bonds  and 
mortgages,  real  estate,  personal  property,  etc. — had  been 
disposed  of  and  reduced  to  paper  by  Mr.  Frederick.  Dur- 
ing a  year  and  a  half  that  he  had  been  gambling,  the  greatest 
part  of  it  had  been  lost ;  on  the  celebrated  Black  Friday, 
which  had  occurred  about  three  weeks  before,  the  ruin  had 
been  comx)lete  ;  and  it  was  doubtful  whether  a  few  thousand 
dollars  would  remain.     The  young  man  had  been  heard  to 

370 


THE    •■  LUNELY        BRICK     HOUbE    ANU     IRISH    VILLAGE. 


A  NEW  TURN  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS.  377 

say,  after  the  crash.,  that  he  thought  he  might  rely  on  a  tri- 
fle of  ten  or  twelve  thousand ;  and  we  remember  that  before 
his  guilt  with  respect  to  the  will  of  his  father  had  been  de- 
nounced, and  was  on  the  point  of  being  investigated  in  a 
criminal  prosecution,  he  had,  for  a  moment,  felt  inclined  to 
leave  New  York  for  parts  unknown,  and  begin  life  again  in 
some  other  place,  where  he  might  retrieve  his  fortune,  under 
a  false  name,  and  in  a  more  safe  manner.  The  young  man 
had,  in  general,  a  first  view  of  things  which  could  be  relied 
upon,  so  that  Mr.  Wilson  thought  the  lady  might  expect 
that,  after  a  total  winding  up  of  the  affairs  of  her  son,  the 
sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars  would,  in  all  probability,  come 
to  her.  This,  in  fact,  amounted  to  nothing,  as  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride,  relying  on  her  annuity — which  had  always  been  reg- 
ularly paid — had  gone  on  with  her  expenses  and  charities  as 
usual,  and  would  want  at  least  that  sum  to  settle  her  own 
affairs.  It  was,  therefore,  a  complete  wreck,  and  she  must 
immediately  trim  her  sails,  and  reduce  herself  to  the  lowest 
spread  of  canvas. 

Her  actual  establishment,  simple  as  it  was,  must  be  di- 
rectly broken  up ;  all  her  servants  dismissed ;  her  single 
pony  and  carriage  sold  ;  the  furniture  of  the  house,  which 
had  come  primitively  from  the  old  mansion,  disjjosed  of  at 
auction  ;  and  she  must  try  to  live  on  the  simple  rent  of  the 
only  piece  of  property  left  her,  namely,  the  house  in  Madi- 
son Avenue. 

The  lady,  with  most  admirable  courage,  undertook  the 
painful  task  required  of  her  by  the  circumstances ;  and, 
with  the  friendly  help  of  Mr.  Wilson,  a  few  rooms  were 
engaged  in  a  neat  but  ordinary  brick  house,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Eighth  Avenue,  west  of  the  Park,  not  far  from 
Eighty-fifth  Street.  It  was  a  wild  district  as  yet,  where 
new  houses  of  the  kind  were  still  very  rare,  and  appeared 
lost  in  the  midst  of  old  frame  buildings,  cottages,  shanties 
of  every  description — old  rookeries,  in  fact — where  dwelt, 
in  general,  people  of  the  most  heterogeneous  character. 
All  her  servants  were  paid  and  dismissed,  with  kind  words  ; 
but,  as  we  know,  Julia  and  Rosa  stuck  to  her,  and  declared 


378  LOUISA  KIRKBBIDE. 

that  what  would  be  good  for  her  would  be  more  than  good 
for  them. 

To  have  a  complete  understanding  of  her  new  position, 
the  house  itself  and  the  neighborhood  must  be  known  ;  and 
few  New-Yorkers,  even,  saw  it  at  the  time,  and  can  form  a 
right  idea  of  it.  The  whole  space  between  the  Central  Park 
and  the  old  Bloomingdale  Road  was  a  wilderness  of  rocks, 
briers,  stunted  trees,  and  dilapidated  dwellings.  The  long 
causeways  graced  by  the  names  of  Eighth,  Ninth,  and  Tenth 
Avenues,  and  the  cross  streets  running  from  the  Park  to 
the  North  River,  inclosed,  in  the  form  of  long  parallelo- 
grams, large  sunken  plots  of  ground,  showing  still  some- 
thing of  tlie  primitive  state  of  the  i-sland,  and  enabling  the 
forlorn  geologist  to  study  at  leisure  the  aboriginal  forma- 
tions of  old  Manhattan.  There,  at  the  foot  of  a  huge  bowl- 
der— which  the  ''glacier  theory"  taught  us,  in  our  green 
youth,  to  consider  an  "erratic  block,"  deposited  at  random 
by  immense  icebergs  floating  at  last  in  the  just-open  ocean — 
the  eye  of  a  close  observer  could  scarcely  distinguish  from 
the  gray  lichens  covering  the  rocks,  unartistic  and  primi- 
tive cottages,  gray  likewise,  and  never  rising  to  a  second 
story.  These  were  called  shanties.  Sometimes  they  were 
found  in  groups  of  three  or  four ;  sometimes  they  were 
scattered  singly  and  unsymmetrically  in  some  indentation 
of  hillocks  or  bowlders.  That  families  could  live  in  such 
diminutive  attempts  at  architecture  appeared  at  first  prob- 
lematical ;  but  if,  by  chance,  a  door  happened  suddenly  to 
open,  and  you  saw  coming,  in  succession,  an  old  man,  with 
his  granny,  followed  by  youths  of  both  sexes,  and  infants 
of  every  size,  from  the  crawling  baby  to  the  straight  boy  or 
girl  of  five,  such  was  their  number,  and  so  unexpected  their 
appearance,  that  the  phenomenon  looked  as  miraculous  and 
inexplicable  as  the  power  of  the  street  magician,  who  can 
draw  out  of  a  common  hat  or  cap  dozens  of  coats,  and 
handkerchiefs,  and  boots,  and  a  whole  string  of  miscellane- 
ous articles,  fitted  to  furnish  a  good-sized  apartment. 

In  that  part  of  Manhattan  Island,  the  cottages  or  shanties, 
as  they  are  called,  contain  mostly  the  Milesian  population. 


A  SEW  TUBN  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS.  379 

Hence  the  surroundings  are  all  alike,  because  the  people, 
being  clannish,  copy  each  other,  and  present  scarcely  any 
variety.  There  is  likewise  a  great  sameness  in  their  per- 
sonal character  and  exterior  appearance  ;  they  are  gay  and 
unrestrained  in  their  movements,  simple  in  their  habits,  and 
incapable  of  disguising  their  interior  feelings.  If  poorly 
clad,  what  you  see  of  their  bodies  shows  comeliness  of  form 
and  attractiveness  of  gestures  ;  the  girls,  chiefly  with  their 
long-hanging  tresses  of  hair,  their  oval  or  round  figure, 
beaming  eyes,  and  soft  smiling  lips,  tell  you  that  the  human 
form  is  always  born  beautiful  and  lovely  wherever  the  laws 
of  God  are  kept,  and  vice  does  not  creep  in  to  turn  the  face 
of  an  angel  into  that  of  an  imp. 

Wherever  you  do  not  see  the  shanty,  but  the  old  dingy 
frame  house,  or  dilapidated  stone  dwelling,  you  find  in 
general  a  completely  different  sort  of  people.  As  they 
belong  to  every  race  except  the  Irish,  you  cannot  describe 
them  in  a  few  touches  of  the  pencil ;  they  are  as  various  as 
the  mammiferous  families  can  be,  from  the  huge  cetacea  of 
the  ocean  to  the  ugly  and  screaming  bats  of  the  night  air. 
You  may  study  the  political  and  social  geography  of  the 
whole  globe  by  going  round  the  space  inclosed  in  the 
designated  district :  Scotch,  Dutch,  Hungarians,  Poles, 
Swedes,  Danes,  Norwegians,  Finns,  the  whole  catalogue 
would  require  the  long  end  of  one  of  our  pages ;  for  New 
York  is  indeed  a  public  caravansary,  where  people  of  every 
nation  come  to  dwell  during  a  night,  and  depart  often  be- 
fore the  next  appearance  of  the  sun. 

In  the  midst  of  such  an  ugly  kaleidoscope  of  dissolving 
views,  a  dwelling  of  a  better  appearance,  but  still  far  from 
stately  or  fashionable,  had  been  selected  by  Mr.  Wilson  to 
be  the  last  refuge  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride ;  and  only  the  lower 
apartments  had  been  rented  by  him,  the  upper  part  being 
occupied  by  an  unobtrusive  and  well-behaved  French  fam- 
ily. In  the  neighboring  five  or  six  blocks,  more  than  twenty 
Irish  shanties  were  thickly  scattered,  which  had  earned  for 
the  locality  the  name  of  "  Irish  village."  Thus  the  lady 
had  fallen  entirely  into  the  hands  of  a  clan ;  and  as  God 


380  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

mercifully  would  have  it,  they  were  mostly  from  County 
Wexford,  for  which  her  late  husband  had  such  an  undis- 
guised affection.  She  could  study  there  the  manners  of 
Enniscorthy  and  New  Ross,  and  soon  her  whole  soul  would 
be  entranced  by  feelings  congenial  to  her  sweet  and  loving 
nature. 

But  before  this  would  happen,  she  was  to  pass  through  a 
period  most  trying  and  painful  for  a  person  accustomed  all 
her  life  to  affluence.  Our  readers  are  fully  aware  of  her 
elevation  above  a  miserly  spirit,  and  of  her  Christian 
detachment  from  purely  worldly  advantages.  She  never 
gloated  in  her  life  over  sensuous  enjoyments,  and  lived  in 
the  greatest  simplicity  in  the  midst  of  all  jpossible  luxurious 
surroundings.  It  was  not  for  her  that  our  Lord  said,  "  Woe 
to  the  rich  ; ' '  and  the  spirit  which  formerly  animated  the 
Elizabeths  of  Hungary  and  the  Blanches  of  Castile,  filled 
likewise  the  true  heart  of  Louisa  Kirkbride,  even  long  be- 
fore she  became  initiated  in  tlie  full  doctrines  of  the  Gospel 
and  received  her  last  inspirations  from  the  true  Bride,  the 
Church  of  Christ.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  this,  it  is  hard,  very 
hard,  for  a  person  who  never  knew  want  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  it,  who  never  required  personal  efforts  of  any 
kind  for  every  convenient  and  useful  need,  to  be  reduced 
to  depend  on  herself  for  a  multitude  of  things  which  always 
before  dozens  of  servants  were  ready  to  furnish.  Such  was 
her  position,  when  she  came  with  Julia  and  Rosa  to  occupy 
a  suit  of  four  or  five  rooms  in  a  new  brick  house  of  two 
stories,  lost  in  a  thick  agglomeration  of  Irish  shanties. 
Over  her  head  lived  a  young  French  couple  Avith  a  lovely 
boy  of  four  years  by  the  name  of  Arthur  Froment.  At 
least  nothing  could  be  expected  from  above  and  around  but 
smiles,  courtesies,  and  simple-hearted  affection.  Inside  of 
the  newly  occupied  apartments,  Rosa  had  charge  of  the 
kitchen.  She  had  received  her  culinary  instruction  merely 
by  looking  at  Monsieur  Jean  Frangois,  the  former  maitre 
de  cuisine  in  the  Kirkbride  mansion.  This  gentleman  had 
left  the  family  several  years  before,  and  flourished  now  in 
a  flashy  restaurant  down  town,  where  he  had  not  to  contend 


A  NEW  TUBN  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS.  381 

any  more  with  Mr.  John  or  Yankee  Clarke,  but  with  a 
host  of  more  annoying  customers  who  could  never  become 
reconciled  with  his  high-spiced  ragouts.  Rosa  had  highly 
profited  by  the  mute  lessons  of  this  artiste ;  but  we  must 
say  that  the  hints  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  who  often  went  down 
to  the  kitchen  and  directed  her,  had  more  to  do  with  prac- 
tical accuracy  in  the  art  of  broiling,  stewing,  and  roasting, 
than  the  remembrance  of  the  more  artificial  mixings  of  the 
French  disciple  of  Ilonsieur  Car  erne. 

In  the  new  arrangements,  Julia  having  the  heavy  work  of 
the  house  to  perform — sweeping,  cleaning,  washing,  to- 
gether with  attending  at  the  door — it  left  her  few  moments 
of  leisure,  and  nearly  fulfilled  the  gloomy  predictions  of  her 
brother  Cornelius.  She  was,  however,  far  from  gloomy  in 
disposition,  and  whenever  her  dear  old  father  came  with 
Mr.  Boyle,  which  happened  frequently  on  Sunday  after- 
noons, they  invariably  found  her  "idle,"  and  ready  to 
entertain  them  with  her  laughable  stories  of  their  new  life 
and  surroundings. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride,  finally,  had  more  to  do  than  one  could 
expect ;  since  on  her  devolved  the  duty  of  repairing  the 
linen,  making  it  anew,  attending  to  the  dresses  and  woolen 
and  cotton  goods  of  the  house,  besides  supervising  the 
whole  establishment ;  and  often  enough  chiding  poor  Rosa 
when  the  coffee  was  badly  roasted,  and  the  meat  over  or 
underdone.  Whenever  the  lady  scolded  Rosa,  Rosa  was 
on  the  point  of  throwing  herself  on  the  neck  of  the  lady  to 
kiss  her.  This  was  always  the  disciplinary  effect  of  the 
punishment. 

The  greatest  affliction  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  in  her  new  situa- 
tion, was  that  of  foreseeing  that  with  her  slender  means  she 
would  no  longer  be  able  to  scatter  her  charities  among  her 
poorer  neighbors.  She  had  not  now  the  means  of  support- 
ing widows  and  orphans,  paying  doctors  and  the  druggists 
for  the  sick,  and  procuring  wet-nurses  for  orphaned  infants, 
or  placing  watchful  attendants  around  the  bed  of  the  dy- 
ing. She  would  soon  find,  however,  that  there  is  still  a 
holier  charity  than  the  one  procured  by  money;  and  that  her 


382  LOUISA  KntKBBIDE. 

simple  visits  and  words  of  encouragement,  lier  personal  help 
added  to  tliat  of  lier  two  ''daughters,"  as  she  called  them, 
would  do  wonders  in  her  new  position.  All  her  lowly  neigh- 
bors already  respected  and  loved  her  on  account  of  what 
they  had  heard  of  her  generosity  when  she  was  rich  and 
her  house  prosperous.  They  were  now  full  of  enthusiastic 
admiration  for  the  unostentatious  courage  with  which  she 
supported  the  heavy  afflictions  they  knew  had  fallen  on  her. 
Whenever  she  went  out  they  all  looked  on  her  with  interest 
and  sympathy,  and  had  she  heard  the  blessings  they  softly 
and  reverently  pronounced,  she  would  have  understood 
better  still  than  she  did,  the  true  catholic  meaning  of  the 
"communion  of  saints." 

But  was  her  apparently  calm  and  dignified  demeanor  the 
effect  of  an  untroubled  soul  and  satisfied  mind  ?  How  could 
it  be  thus  so  soon  after  the  terrible  ordeals  she  had  passed 
through  ?  Often  during  the  night,  her  restless  imagination 
brought  back  the  remembrance  of  her  dead  husband  and  of 
her  wretched  son  ;  and  burning  tears  of  grief  moistened 
her  pillow. 

Julia,  the  following  morning,  understood  the  inward 
struggle  of  the  previous  night,  but  she  did  not  content  her- 
self with  smoothing  away  the  mere  testimony  of  it ;  she  felt 
moreover  a  deeper  sympathy  for  her  suffering  ''mother," 
and  redoubled,  during  the  day,  her  attention  to  her  comfort 
and  consolation.  This  was  the  even  tenor  of  the  life  to 
which  Louisa  Kirkbride  had  been  finally  reduced. 

Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne  meanwhile  was  fairly  launched 
on  a  sea  of  activity  and  prosperous  advancement.  His  suc- 
cess in  suppressing  some  heavy  burglaries,  and  defeating 
thievisli  projects  on  such  a  large  scale,  had  spread  his 
reputation  over  the  whole  city.  Yet  he  was  not  satisfied 
with  himself ;  three  of  the  twelve  burglars  in  the  last  at- 
tack on  a  rich  bank,  had  escaped  ;  and  he  knew  that  the 
nest  had  not  been  altogether  destroyed,  nor  the  brood 
entirely  crushed.  He  kept  his  eyes  open  on  the  low  house 
in  Greene  Street,  and  made  up  his  mind  to  discover  the 


A  STIR  AT  POLICE  HEADQUARTERS.  383 

whole  ramification  of  rascality,  which,  from  that  centre, 
radiated  over  a  great  part  of  the  city.  He  had  two  great 
objects  in  view  :  one,  the  good  of  the  citizens  by  laying 
bare  the  evil  until  this  time  unknoT\Ti,  and  showing  to  the 
authorities  of  the  city  how  crime  can  be  prevented  ;  the 
other,  his  own  good  and  improvement,  by  gaining  an  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  law  such  as  it  is,  and  of  the  best 
direction  to  be  given  to  legal  studies.  And  in  this  he 
was  not  working  for  himself  alone,  but  in  fact  for  the  whole 
community. 

Whoever  looks  impartially  on  the  legal  profession  in  the 
United  States,  and  in  Xew  York  in  particular,  must  be 
struck  with  the  fact  of  the  immense  gain  the  state  has  de- 
rived from  eminent  lawyers  of  every  degree.  We  will  not 
attempt  to  give  a  list  of  them,  and  to  show  how  in  every 
branch  of  legislation  and  administration,  the  most  useful 
qualities  of  real  statesmen  have  been  conspicuous  in  the 
first  ranks  of  the  profession.  Ability,  uprightness,  large 
views,  sound  and  ingenious  investigations,  have  been  the 
characteristics  of  many  gentlemen  who  were,  at  the  same 
time,  great  American  citizens  and  sound  lawyers.  Who- 
ever would  deny  this,  has  no  knowledge  whatever  of  the 
real  state  of  the  case,  we  may  say,  all  over  the  Union,  but 
particularly  in  the  North,  and  in  the  great  centres  of  popu- 
lation, wealth,  and  culture.  Among  these  a  number  of 
men  either  born  in  Ireland,  or  of  Irish  parentage,  have  al- 
ways obtained  most  honorable  positions.  As  the  more  we 
advance  the  more  the  religious  feeling  of  the  peox-)le  in  gen- 
eral goes  on  diminishing,  and  threatens  to  disappear  en- 
tirely, the  only  hope  almost  that  remains  for  the  moral 
safety  of  the  Eepublic  is  in  the  number,  influence,  science, 
and  sound  views  of  those  who  have  made  law  their  chief 
study  and  profession.  A  real  Christian  spirit,  universally 
spread,  would  certainly  be  far  preferable  ;  but  in  its  unfor- 
tunate absence,  at  least  the  falling  back  on  good  laws,  and 
on  their  execution,  seems  to  be  the  only  possible  safeguard 
against  an  ever-growing  demoralization.  In  this,  to  its 
honor  it  must  be  said,  the  Irish  race  in  America  has  at  aU 


384  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

times,  but  chiefly  of  late,  presented  a  brilliant  galaxy  of 
talent  and  soundness  in  moral  principles.  At  least  they 
have  walked  on  a  par  with  many  Americans. 

There  is  no  doubt  that,  on  the  other  side,  many  legislators 
and  able  lawyers  in  the  country  have  little  idea  of  the  sa- 
credness  of  their  profession.  Law  stands  so  intimately  con- 
nected A\dth  morality,  that  loose  views  of  the  first  cannot 
but  operate  disastrously  on  the  second.  Hence  the  pagan 
principles,  we  may  say,  that  unfortunately  ah'eady  prevail, 
and  every  day  spread  more  and  more  among  all  classes  of 
society,  exert  the  most  baneful  influence  on  those  even  who 
have,  to  a  great  degree,  the  safe-keeping  of  the  morals  of 
the  people.  They  soon  become  inoculated  with  the  same 
alarming  germs  of  corruption ;  and  either  when  we  con- 
sider the  sound  financial  interests  of  the  nation,  the  great 
principles  of  justice  which  ought  to  regulate  the  mutual  re- 
lations of  citizens  in  money  matters,  the  fairness,  and  up- 
rightness, required  for  safe-guarding  the  rights  of  the  poor 
and  the  helpless ;  or,  when  we  come  to  higher  interests  still, 
namely,  those  of  the  family,  and  the  relations  between 
wives  and  husbands,  fathers  and  sons,  the  all -important 
concerns  of  Christian  marriage,  which  is,  in  fact,  the  corner- 
stone of  human  society  itself — the  deep-reflecting  man,  the 
close  observer  of  the  by-play  of  passions  among  men,  can- 
not but  shudder  when  he  sees  that  some  of  those  even  who 
ought  by  their  profession  to  be  the  guardians  of  tliese  most 
sacred  rights,  entertain  of  them,  at  most,  very  loose  no- 
tions altogether  unworthy  of  even  morally  inclined  pagans. 
Hence  the  numerous  enactments  which  disgrace  the  codes 
of  many  States  on  the  subject  of  the  acquisition  and  trans- 
fer of  property,  and  which  often  appear  to  have  been  made 
purposely  to  enable  swindlers,  on  a  large  scale,  to  obtain 
their  greedy  ends  by  the  very  help  of  legislation ;  so  that 
cunning,  deceit,  subtle  designs  on  the  x^urse  of  others,  be- 
come almost  synonymous  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
law.  But  the  many  legislative  acts,  concocted  in  corrupt 
assemblies,  to  loosen  the  marriage  ties,  and  render  easy  the 
breaking  asunder  of  the  most  imjoortant  obligations,  are 


A  STIR  AT  POLICE  HEADQUAHTBBS.  385 

still  more  disgraceful  and  fatal  to  tlie  morality  and  happi- 
ness of  the  nation. 

And  in  all  cities  belonging  to  those  States  in  which  so  de- 
leterious a  legislation  rules,  you  can  find  crowds  of  men, 
decorated  with  the  titles  of  attorneys  and  counselors  at 
law,  who  have  no  other  object  in  view  than  to  enable  their 
"clients"  to  trample  under  foot  the  most  divine  prescrip- 
tions of  human  conscience  and  of  strict  moral  law,  in  order 
to  accomplish  the  end  of  their  bad  passions.  And  "the 
press,"  which  ought  to  be  armed  with  the  scourge  of  Justice 
against  these  pests  of  society,  often  only  shows  signs  of 
sycophancy,  and  of  a  fawning  spirit,  when  there  is  question 
of  those  "distinguished  lawyers"  who  only  profess  to  ob- 
tain divorces  without  cause,  and  to  separate,  on  the  most 
flimsy  pretext,  those  whom  God  united,  and  whom  the 
safety  of  society  requires  to  remain  faithful  to  their  sacred 
obligations. 

When  marital  relations  are  thus  openly  broken  with  the 
aid  of  the  law  for  mere  trifles,  we  ought  not  to  be  surprised 
that  paternal  and  maternal  rights  are  frequently  considered 
as  of  no  account,  because,  thus  it  pleases  accommodating 
lawyers  and  corrupt  Judges  :  and  children  are  not  seldom 
taken  away  violently  from  their  rightful  guardians  to  be 
given  up  to  proselytizing  societies  which  are  of  course  sup- 
posed to  be  animated  with  more  parental  feelings  than  those 
who  have  given  them  birth.  And  all  this  takes  place  in  a 
highly  civilized  society  which  boasts  of  its  enlightenment 
and  culture. 

Against  such  enormous  evils,  it  behooves  all  true  lovers 
of  their  country  to  club  together,  and  solemnly  reiterate  the 
great  principles  of  right  against  those  who  would  substitute 
in  its  place  mifjM  ;  and  we  say  once  more  that  many  lawyers 
of  note  have  been,  and  are  at  this  moment,  engaged  in  the 
holy  work  of  resuscitating  the  almost  dead  conscience  of  a 
great  number  of  blind  people.  Among  them  Mr.  Cornelius 
O' Byrne  was  already  taking  an  active  place.  But  as  the 
study  of  law  did  not  yet  absorb  all  his  attention,  and  as  he 
was  still  actively  working  with  the  defenders  of  order  in  the 
25 


386  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

city,  it  is  proper  to  state  here  briefly  what  efforts  he  was 
then  making  in  the  fultiUment  of  this  holy  mission ;  we 
must  see  in  him  a  faithful  detective  before  we  look  at  him 
as  a  great  lawyer. 

Schwitz,  with  two  of  his  companions,  had  escaped  when 
nine  other  burglars  were  caught  with  John  at  their  head. 
The  outlaw  was  more  enraged  than  ever,  and  had  now  no 
other  prospect  but  to  revenge  himself  more  furiously  on 
society  than  he  ever  did,  and  to  succeed  at  last  in  destroying 
the  happiness  of  the  0' Byrnes  by  inflicting  an  indelible  stain 
on  the  honor  of  the  '' daughter  of  the  house."  One  of  the 
two  companions  that  escaped  with  him  was  no  other  than 
Mr.  George,  ''the  Bully."  We  have  lost  sight  of  him  for  a 
long  time,  but  he  now  comes  again  before  us,  and  his  unex- 
pected appearance  must  be  accompanied  with  a  brief  state- 
ment of  his  obscure  history,  since  he  left  "the  Tombs  "  after 
a  month' s  confinement.  He  had  been  persuaded  that  his  brief 
punishment  would  make  a  martyr  of  him,  and  that  many 
great  families  of  New  York  would  vie  with  each  other  to 
have  him  for  their  butler,  on  account  of  the  proof  his  con- 
viction gave  of  his  intense  hatred  of  the  Irish  ;  but  he  soon 
found  out  his  mistake.  No  "  great  family  "  even  of  those 
who  looked  on  the  Irish  as  contemptible  and  detestable, 
would  consent  to  receive  him  after  hearing  from  his  lips  an 
account  of  his  display  of  courage  against  tlie  hated  race. 

He  never  could,  after  this,  find  anything  like  the  com- 
fortable position  he  had  enjoyed  in  the  Kirkbride  family, 
and  he  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  meet  with  a  much 
inferior  situation  in  a  fanatic  Orangeman's  house,  wherein 
he  became  the  man  of  all  work.  By  feeding  his  anti-Irish 
passion  in  his  new  master's  company,  he  gradually  felt  less 
acutely  the  loss  of  his  personal  advantages,  and  at  last 
became  blindly  persuaded  that  revenge  was  sweeter  still 
than  the  well -filled  paunch,  and  the  solemn-looking  dress 
necessarily  belonging  to  a  butler  of  high  degree.  Worse 
still,  the  poor  wages  he  received  could  scarcely  supply  his 
wants,  and  becoming  by  degrees  seedy  and  vile-looking,  he 
at  the  same  time  grew  almost  desperate,  and  could  screw  up 


A  STIR  AT  POLICE  HEADqUARTERS.  387 

Ms  courage  so  far  as  to  ^'assist"  in  a  burglary  from  the 
success  of  wMcli  lie  expected  to  fill  his  pockets,  and  satisfy 
at  last  his  most  urgent  needs.  For  this  worthy  ending  of 
his  aspirations  he  almost  unexpectedly  found  the  very 
appropriate  company  of  his  former  friend,  Mr.  Schwitz, 
for  whom  he  now  felt  greater  inclination  than  for  the 
"dashing"  John,  who  he  knew  must  despise  him.  Conse- 
quently in  the  great  drama  of  shop-lifting  of  which  we  have 
already  given  an  account,  he  stood  rather  nearer  to  Schwitz 
than  to  John,  and  thus  he  was  enabled  to  escape  with  the 
former,  while  the  latter  received  his  "quietus"  at  the  hand 
of  Cornelius  0' Byrne. 

We  must  not,  therefore,  be  surprised  that  George  had 
become  of  late  a  daily  frequenter  of  the  low  public  house  in 
Greene  Street,  that  resort  of  thieves  and  cut- throats,  which 
also,  after  the  failure  of  the  burglary,  remained  the  main  stay 
of  the  hopes  of  the  "outlaw."  But  besides  George,  "the 
Bully,"  Schwitz  found  a  host  of  helpmates  in  the  gloomy 
recesses  of  the  large  establishment ;  and  the  universal  agita- 
tion, that  reigned  supreme  in  it,  could  not  but  attract  the 
attention  of  the  friends  of  Con,  who  continued  occasion- 
ally to  visit  the  place.  They  reported  to  their  chief  that 
something  unusual  was  brewing,  and  that  the  police  had 
not  yet  attached  sufficient  importance  to  the  establishment, 
and  to  others  probably  of  the  same  kind,  which  must  infal- 
libly flourish  in  many  by-lanes  and  obscure  streets  of  the 
large  city. 

Until  that  epoch,  the  police  of  New  York  had  been 
groping  their  way  in  the  dark,  occasionally  catching  a 
malefactor  or  two,  but  never  understanding  the  spread  of 
the  evil  and  the  importance  of  an^esting  it  in  its  incipient 
stage.  It  was  a  "crusade,"  which  was  being  organized 
against  the  peace  of  society  ;  and  the  numerous  "  European 
exiles,"  thrown  on  the  shores  of  America  by  the  incessant 
revolutions  of  the  Old  World,  were  bringing  with  them, 
into  the  New,  elements  of  disorder  anteriorly  unknown, 
and  which  could  not  but  be  baneful  in  their  effects  on 


388  LOUISA  KIBKBEIDE. 

society  at  large.  The  chief  feature  of  the  evil  was  a  wide- 
spread organization,  to  which  the  police  had  not  until  then 
been  obliged  to  turn  their  attention.  Crime  formerly  was, 
we  may  say,  individual,  and  if  a  few  pickpockets  or  bur- 
glars clubbed  together  to  reach  more  effectively  the  object  of 
their  greedy  siDeculations,  the  number  engaged  in  each  of 
those  criminal  organizations  was  so  small,  and  they  were 
each  and  all  so  completely  disconnected,  that  search  after 
them  was  only,  in  fact,  a  search  after  individuals,  and  all 
the  traditions  of  the  police,  and  the  aims  of  the  best  detec- 
tive officers  had  no  other  object  than  to  pounce  on  a  bold 
thief,  or,  at  most,  on  a  small  band  of  a  few  obscure  house- 
breakers or  shop-lifters.  But  the  wide-spread  spirit  of  as- 
sociation and  universal  organization  fostered  in  Europe  by 
more  than  a  hundred  years  of  secret  plots  against  govern- 
ments and  political  or  religious  institutions,  had  penetrated 
into  a  lower  stratum  of  society,  and  had  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  thieves  and  cut-throats.  In  the  estimation  of  all 
men,  real  power  could  be  found  only  in  numbers,  and  even 
the  gros  sous  of  the  French  Republic  of  '93 — so  numerous 
yet  in  the  currency  circulation  of  France,  in  our  boyhood — 
representing  a  modern  Hercules  with  his  bunch  of  big  sticks, 
surrounded  with  the  legend.  Union  et  force ^  preached  to 
all  eyes  the  all-important  subject  of  association  for  any 
kind  of  purpose,  good,  bad,  or  indifferent.  Large  societies 
of  thieves  and  burglars  began,  therefore,  to  start  up  from 
under  the  ground,  and  the  New  World  received  from  the 
Old  the  more  than  dubious  advantage  of  this  modern  en- 
lightenment and  progress. 

The  oldest  members  of  the  New  York  police  opened  their 
eyes,  when  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  detailed  to  them  the 
very  serious  proofs  of  the  existence  of  several  fully  organ- 
ized bands  of  conspirators  against  society,  whose  numerous 
ramifications  all  came  to  centre  in  the  dark  apartments  of 
the  public  house  in  Greene  Street,  by  this  time  well  known 
to  our  readers.  This  young  gentleman  had,  in  the  very 
first  days  of  his  life  in  New  York,  been  initiated  into  the 
political  and  social  plots  which  then  began  to  flourish  in 
poor  Gotham,  previously,  indeed,  innocent  of  crime  on  a 


A  STIR  AT  POLICE  HEADqUARTERS.  389 

large  scale ;  and  we  all  remember  his  first  acquintance  with 
German  and  other  foreign  radicals,  in  Greenwich  Street, 
where  he  was  induced  to  pay  them  a  visit  which  sufficiently 
enlightened  him  on  their  projects.  He  had  not  then,  it  is 
true,  fallen  unawares  on  a  nest  of  robbers  and  highwaymen  ; 
it  was  merely  an  assemblage  of  social  desperadoes  engaged 
in  the  "reformation"  of  the  whole  political  and  social 
order ;  but  it  is  easy  to  see  that  when  the  mania  of  organiz- 
ing goes  down  so  low  in  the  ranks  of  civil  life,  it  must  soon 
even  penetrate  into  the  dark  recesses  of  open  crime  and  re- 
bellion against  the  laws. 

To  give  our  readers — especially  the  ladies  who  will  cer- 
tainly never  have  an  occasion  of  poking  their  noses  into 
such  nice  gatherings  of  gentlemen — an  idea  of  the  whole 
gigantic  scheme,  we  mil  briefly  state  a  few  particulars  of 
their  general  operations.  The  details  of  the  entire  system, 
in  all  its  branches,  would  require  a  book  larger  in  bulk 
and  more  heavy  in  substance,  than  the  volume  we  are 
writing.  The  organization  included  a  good  many  depart- 
ments of  the  various  gangs  of  operators.  These  were, 
to  mention  only  a  few  of  them,  chiefly  burglars,  counter- 
feiters, incendiaries,  assassins.  The  first  were  subdivided 
into  bank,  store,  and  church  burglars.  We  remember  (be- 
ing a  clergyman)  that  this  last  interesting  branch  of  in- 
dustrious people  ransacked,  in  one  single  summer,  all  the 
churches  of  the  towns  and  villages,  situated  on  both  banks 
of  the  Hudson,  from  the  I^an'ows  to  Troy — this  is  historic — 
and  from  mere  memory,  we  could  give,  if  time  and  space  al- 
lowed, extremely  curious  instances  of  their  skill  and  success. 

The  second  class — the  counterfeiters — made,  about  this 
time,  gigantic  strides  in  the  noble  art  of  imitating  signa- 
tures, manufacturing  all  the  kinds  of  special  paper  used  in 
banking  or  commerce,  and  reproducing  to  perfection  all  the 
"bills"  which  in  America  take  the  place  of  money.  The 
then  celebrated  "Thompson's  Detector"  could  not  any  more 
be  a  safe  guide,  since  even  the  best  bank  officers  were  com- 
pletely at  a  loss  to  distinguish  the  counterfeit  paper  from 
the  "genuine;"  and,  on  many  occasions,  new  plates  had 
to  be  engraved  and  the  old  ones  destroyed  to  meet  this  new 


390  LOUISA  ELREBRIDE. 

emergency.  The  progress  of  science  had  been,  a  short  time 
previous,  so  rapid,  that  all  the  secrets  of  chemistry,  engrav- 
ing, and  calligraphy  had  reached  tlie  class  of  men  formerly 
considered  the  most  contemptible  and  low,  namely,  the 
mean  adepts  of  counterfeiting  in  all  its  branches. 

With  respect  to  incendiarism,  there  is  no  need  of  enlarging 
on  the  subject,  since  we  have  already  shown  on  a  previ- 
ous occasion  that  the  United  States  have  always  been  the 
great  field  of  house -burnings,  and  that  no  country  in  the 
world  can  compete  with  them  in  this  respect ;  but  at  this 
time  of  our  story,  incendiarism,  which  had  a  lull  since  the 
breaking  out  of  the  civil  war  with  the  South  in  1861,  a  lull 
attributed  by  many — the  reader  may  judge  how  far  it  was 
true — to  the  sudden  enlisting  of  the  great  majority  of  those 
engaged  in  firing  public  edifices  and  private  dwellings, 
for  the  mere  pleasure  of  putting,  afterward,  the  fire  out, 
began  to  blaze  forth  again  in  renewed  vigor,  preparatory  to 
the  immense  conflagrations  at  Chicago,  Boston,  and  other 
places,  which  occurred  soon  after.  Our  intention  is  not  to 
slander  the  people  at  large  and  to  pretend  that  the  ma- 
jority of  those  who  enlisted  during  the  war  were  of  the 
incendiary  class.  Nothing  would  be  more  false  ;  and  any 
one  who  witnessed  the  solemn  events  of  those  days  knows 
that  true  patriotism  and  a  real  desire  of  keeping  the  whole 
country  together  and  preventing  its  breaking  in  two  was 
the  main  spring  of  the  enthusiasm  that  then  prevailed.  But 
that  a  great  number  of  the  idle  young  men  who  were  con- 
spicuous in  the  midst  of  bona  fide  firemen,  whenever  a  con- 
flagration took  place  before  1861,  suddenly  disappeared  at 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  was  certainly  remarked  at  the 
time  by  many  observers.  But  their  total  number  formed 
an  inappreciable  minority  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  ;  and 
what  is  here  written  is  a  simple  conjecture  that  must  be 
taken  for  what  it  is  worth. 

These  few  details  of  the  principal  occurrences  which  at  the 
time  suddenly  stirred  up  to  activity  the  great  body  of  New 
York  policemen,  were  necessary  for  the  elucidation  of  the 
main  narrative  of  our  story,  which  will  be  resumed  in  the 
next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XXYL 

A  NEW   FIENDISH  ASSAULT. 

Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  had  proved  to  the  police  au- 
thorities of  New  York  the  importance  or  rather  absolute 
necessity  of  organizing  the  force  with  such  overwhelming 
efficiency  as  to  meet  the  enormous  contingencies  of  the  case. 
From  this  out,  the  detective  art  became  a  science.  Each 
man  was  not  left,  as  before,  to  his  own  ability  and  private 
skill.  General  principles  were  adopted,  which  were  to  gov- 
ern all  those  who  acted  under  the  supervision  of  the  chief 
of  police.  The  work  of  statistics  began  in  good  earnest. 
Lists  of  houses  of  bad  repute,  of  suspected  drinking  saloons, 
of  low  places  of  meeting  for  what  began  then  to  be  called 
^'the  dangerous  classes,"  were  duly  written  out  on  the  most 
reliable  information  which  could  be  obtained.  The  men 
themselves  were  divided  into  squads  better  organized  than 
heretofore.  Their  activity  in  pursuit  of  crime  was  not  only 
increased  by  the  prospect  of  the  pecuniary  reward  now  and 
then  offered  by  one  interested  in  the  discovery  of  a  culprit ; 
but  a  more  complete  hierarchy  of  places,  well  salaried  by 
the  treasury  of  the  city,  afforded  to  each  individual  detec- 
tive a  powerful  motive  of  exertion. 

In  the  numerous  intimations  given  to  Mr.  0' Byrne  by  his 
agents,  and  which  became  the  origin  of  his  more  extended 
views,  a  few  words  were  heard  and  repeated  to  him  as  com- 
ing from  Greene  Street,  which  interested  him  deeply  as  a 
brother  and  friend  ;  and  which  being  intimately  connected 
with  this  story,  require  some  attention,  though  they  do  not 
occupy  a  prominent  place  in  the  great  general  events  we  are 

391 


392  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

recording.  They  are  altogether  of  an  individual  character, 
and  only  refer  to  poor  Julia,  on  whose  ruin  two  villains, 
whom  vindictive  justice  had  not  reached,  were  still  intent, 
though  several  of  their  former  friends  had  been  already 
taken  off  by  a  violent  death.  Schwitz  and  George  had 
plotted  the  crime  ;  Ahem  heard  a  word  of  it  and  reported 
it  directly  to  Cornelius.  At  that  moment,  Schwitz  was  not 
yet  surely  known  by  anybody  as  an  outlaw,  and  he  had 
admirably  kept  his  incognito  ;  still  from  indications  which 
we  cannot  specify  the  rumor  became  current  at  police  head- 
quarters that  the  ''escaped  convict"  who  had  eluded  the 
pursuit  of  policemen  at  the  foot  of  James  Street  was  at  large 
in  quite  a  different  quarter  of  the  city. 

O' Byrne,  in  possession  of  some  positive  information  on 
the  dangers  which  yet  surrounded  his  sister,  went  straight 
to  the  new  house  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  ;  and  when  he  reached 
it,  he  found  the  lady  and  Julia  absent,  and  Rosa  alone  in 
the  house.  At  the  sight  of  the  young  man,  her  face,  at 
first  pale  and  almost  inexpressive,  became  suddenly  ani- 
mated and  suffused  with  a  glowing  tint.  She  begged  of  Mr. 
C  Byrne  to  sit  down,  as  Julia  would  soon  come  back  with 
Mrs.  Kirkbride ;  and  having  herself  nothing  to  do  in  the 
kitchen,  as  it  was  the  afternoon,  she  took  her  seat  on  a 
small  lounge  opposite  the  chair  occupied  by  Mr.  O' Byrne. 

''Miss  McCarthy,"  said  the  young  detective,  "are  you 
not  afraid  to  remain  alone  in  this  solitary  house,  when  it 
would  be  so  easy  for  bad-minded  people  to  attack  you  ? " 

"Indeed,  sir,"  she  replied,  "it  is  the  first  time  the 
thought  comes  to  my  mind.  I  have  never  yet  imagined 
that  any  one  could  come  to  harm  me.  But,  in  fact,  I  am 
not  alone.  Mrs.  Froment  is  up  stairs  with  her  little  boy, 
and  we  are  on  such  friendly  terms,  that  whenever  I  am  by 
myself  in  the  aftemocm,  and  I  wish  it,  I  can  go  and  knock 
at  her  door,  sure  to  be  admitted  instantly,  and  to  have  a 
pleasant  chat  with  her." 

"Oh,  I  see,"  said  O'Byrne,  "and  I  am  glad  of  it.  But 
even  when  you  are  all  in  the  house,  do  you  not  feel  lone- 
some in  this  strange  building,  in  the  midst  of  so  many  shan- 


A  j^EW  FIENDISH  ASSAULT.  393 

ties,  full  of  unknoT^Ti  people  ;  what  kind  of  life  do  you  lead 
here  ?   Tell  me  the  truth." 

"The  most  happy  we  have  ever  led  yet,  sir,"  replied 
Rosa  with  animation  ;  ''at  least  so  it  is  with  me.  All  the 
shanties  are  full,  not  of  'unknown  people,'  but  of  Irish  peo- 
ple ;  and  I  am  proud  and  glad  to  be  an  Irish  girl,  although 
I  have  learned  it  so  late." 

"What  do  you  find  in  them  so  attractive ? "  inquired  the 
young  man,  probably  to  throw  a  doubt  in  her  way  and  see 
how  she  would  come  out  of  it. 

"I  suppose  you  joke,  Mr.  0' Byrne,"  said  Rosa  laughing, 
"in  asking  me  such  a  question.  But  if  it  is  in  any  way 
serious,  I  leave  it  to  yourself  to  say,  sir  ;  among  what  other 
'strange  and  unkno\\Ti  people,'  would  you  find  what  we 
have  found  here  ?  We  had  scarcely  arrived,  when  the  peo- 
ple of  the  shanties  looked  at  us  with  interest ;  we  became 
aware  directly  that  we  were  in  the  midst  of  friends ;  they 
appeared  a  little  shy,  at  first,  and  used  their  looks  more 
than  their  tongues ;  but  so  soon  as  the  first  spell  was 
broken,  and  a  question  or  two  had  been  asked  of  them,  it 
would  have  done  you  good  to  see  the  way  they  showed 
their  sympathy  and  kind-hearted  disposition.  One  of  them 
wanted  Mrs.  Kirkbride  to  receive,  every  morning,  a  warm 
cupfull  of  her  goat's  milk,  which  she  sent  by  her  little  girl ; 
because,  as  she  said,  '  It  would  warm  up  her  blood  and  make 
her  ruddy  again;  pale  though  she  appeared  to  be.'  An- 
other, who  had  just  half  a  dozen  hens,  gave  us  notice  that, 
every  day,  we  should  receive  three  of  their  eggs,  laid  the 
night  before,  '  as  the  eggs  in  the  stores  were,  half  of  them, 
stale,  etc.,  etc'  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  to  go  round  all  the 
shanties  to  talk  with  the  grannies  and  the  young  mothers, 
and  tell  them  they  would  oblige  her  if  they  gave  her  their 
affection,  and  kept  for  themselves  the  few  things  they  had 
in  their  poor  abodes.  She  was  only  sorry  she  could  not  do 
for  them  what  she  had  been  so  glad  to  do,  until  that  time, 
for  the  people  of  her  former  neighborhood.  '  We  know  it, 
madam,  we  know  it,'  they  all  exclaimed,  'and  you  have 
not  fallen  in  with  ungrateful  people.'     This,  Mr.  0' Byrne, 


394  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

is  the  kind  of  '  unknown '  neighbors  who  dwell  in  the  shan- 
ties all  around." 

"I  see,  my  dear,  by  the  way  yon  speak,"  remarked  the 
young  policeman,  "  that  you  belong  indeed  to  the  old  stock. 
But  how  do  you  get  on  in  the  study  of  your  catechism  ;  for 
I  know  that  you  are  now  engaged  in  that  dry,  very  dry 
occupation?" 

''This  occupation,  Mr.  0' Byrne,"  she  replied,  ''maybe 
'  dry '  to  other  people  ;  it  is  not  so  to  me  ;  and  I  am  always 
happy  when  I  am  at  leisure  and  can  study  the  little  book, 
which  the  good  father  so  kindly  explains  every  time  I  go  to 
see  him.  Precisely  what  makes  me  feel  more  keenly  my 
happiness  here,  than  anywhere  else  I  have  been,  is  the  ex- 
quisite consolation  of  belonging  now  to  the  flock  of  Christ, 
and  having  the  hope  of  partaking,  before  long,  in  all  the 
sweetness  of  the  sacraments.  Are  you  a  Christian  to  call 
this  a  very  'dry  occupation'  V 

There  was,  in  the  tone  of  Rosa,  something  almost  re- 
proachful addressed  to  a  visitor.  It  looked  as  if  the  gui 
had  been  really  offended,  at  the  supposed  possibility  of  her 
finding  her  new  religion  burdensome  and  unpleasant.  The 
young  man  felt  it,  and  owed  her  an  apology.  Her  long 
tresses  of  hair,  hanging  loose  on  the  shoulders,  as  usual, 
fell  on  the  side  of  the  lounge  near  which  O' Byrne  was 
seated.  He  slightly  passed  his  hand  over  them,  and  touch- 
ing, rather  than  holding,  a  large  braid : 

"I  see,  my  dear  Miss  Rosa,"  he  said,  "that  your  soul  is 
as  sensitive  as  your  hair  is  soft.  Pardon  me,  if  I  have 
offended  you.  I  did  not  certainly  intend  it,  and  was  only 
guilty  of  speaking  slightingly  in  tone,  when,  in  point  of 
fact,  religion  is  very  dear  to  me,  as  I  know  that  it  is  most 
dear  to  you.  Please  tell  me,  that  you  have  now  forgotten 
what  I  said,  and  will  never  remember  it." 

Rosa,  at  these  words,  turned  crimson,  and  her  face  was 
instantly  suffused  with  blushes.  The  words  she  had  heard 
could  scarcely  explain  the  cause  of  it.  So,  we  leave  to  the 
reader  the  task  of  explaining  it  himself.  As  for  the  young 
man,  it  was  almost  a  revelation,  and  he  took  then  a  much 


A  NEW  FIEI^DISH  ASSAULT.  395 

deeper  interest  in  her  than  ever  before.  There  was  some- 
thing far  profounder  than  he  had  at  first  imagined  in  that 
young  girl,  whom  he  had  seen  when  a  child,  and  whom 
he  had  thought  all  along  of  an  infantine  character.  A  vivid 
imagination,  an  impulsive  heart,  and  a  most  pure  and  re- 
fined soul,  dwelt  in  the  slender  person  of  Eosa  McCarthy ; 
and  Cornelius  0' Byrne  felt  it,  for  the  first  time. 

There  is  no  telling  how  both  would  have  expressed  their 
emotion,  when  suddenly  Mrs.  Kirkbride  and  Julia  returned. 
They  entered  with  a  pass-key,  and  were  behind  the  back  of 
the  "guilty"  before  these  perceived  it,  and  were  fully 
aware  of  their  awkward  situation.  Cornelius  was  the  first 
to  recover  his  self-composure.  He  apologized  to  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride for  having  entered  during  her  absence,  and  told  Julia, 
with  a  laugh,  that  it  was  for  her  he  came,  and  for  no  one 
else.  Rosa,  all  blushing,  had  already  left  the  room  and  re- 
turned to  the  kitchen,  waiting  for  Mrs.  Kirkbride  to  ask 
her  an  explanation. 

The  young  man,  left  alone  with  his  sister,  began  a  serious 
conversation  with  her.  The  dangers  which  had  followed  her 
everywhere,  were  now  as  threatening  as  they  had  ever  been. 
Several  bad  men  had  swoni  to  encompass  her  ruin.  She 
would  be  protected  as  effectually  as  the  police  of  the  city 
could  do  it,  and  orders  had  already  been  given  to  the  officers 
of  the  neighborhood  to  watch  her  house,  and  keep  a  sharp 
lookout  on  strangers  around.  But  the  place  was  still  a 
wilderness,  and  the  men  intrusted  with  its  care  were  few 
and  far  between.  Julia  ought  to  be  extremely  prudent ; 
when  visiting  the  Park  during  the  day,  with  a  companion 
or  two,  even,  she  ought  never  go  out  of  open  places,  nor 
enter  any  thicket  and  close  shrubbery.  Her  safety  required 
that  she  should  never  leave  the  house  after  dark ;  and,  if 
any  strangers  should  knock  for  admission,  late  in  the  even- 
ing, she  ought  never  to  open  the  door,  Tvithout  ascertain- 
ing first,  from  the  inclosed  area,  what  they  wished  and  who 
they  were. 

Poor  Julia  was  sadly  agitated  by  this  unwelcome  news. 
She  had  been  so  firmly  persuaded  of  her  perfect  security  in 


396  LOUISA  EIREBRIDE. 

the  midst  of  so  many  kind  friends  as  they  had  met  around 
their  new  abode,  that  it  was  really  discouraging  to  be  told 
there  were  still  lurking  enemies,  intent  on  mischief  and 
crime.  She,  however,  promised  her  brother  to  follow  strictly 
his  advice,  leaving  the  rest  to  God,  who  never  had  disap- 
pointed her.  After  the  departure  of  Cornelius,  she  ac- 
quainted Mrs.  Kirkbride  with  the  purport  of  his  visit,  and 
greatly  astonished  the  lady  by  telling  her  they  were  not  yet 
perfectly  safe  in  their  obscurity,  and  among  so  many  sin- 
cerely devoted  neighbors. 

Meanwhile,  ''Bully"  George,  who  had  known,  in  all  its 
details,  the  whole  district,  when  he  was  butler  in  the  Kirk- 
bride mansion  on  Madison  Avenue,  because  he  had  then  be- 
come acquainted  with  all  the  Orangemen  dwelling  around ; 
paid  a  sly  visit  to  his  old  friends,  whom  he  had  not  seen 
since  the  day  he  enrolled  them  for  the  attack  on  the  old 
shanty.  Many  refused  to  have  any  intercourse  with  him, 
after  the  trouble  he  had  brought  some  of  them  in ;  but  a 
certain  number  pressed  yet  his  hand  eagerly,  were  proud  of 
their  former  acquaintance  with  him,  and  some  few  of  these 
fast  friends  could  give  him  important  information  on  the 
habits  of  the  three  ''women"  living  in  the  lonely  "brick 
house."  During  the  day,  all  the  dwellers  in  the  surround- 
ing shanties  were  as  sure  a  protection  for  them  as  if  all  the 
men  had  been  so  many  fierce  watch-dogs.  At  night,  a  single 
alarm  from  the  house  would  suddenly  bring  the  whole  clan 
to  the  rescue.  If  Mr.  George  wished  to  have  his  little  re- 
venge, the  best  time  he  could  choose  was  in  the  afternoon, 
when  the  "  tall  Irish  girl"  went  often  to  the  Park  with  the 
"widow."  In  some  lonely  walk  of  the  vast  inclosure,  and 
chiefly  in  the  thickly  planted  arhorehcm^  as  it  is  called, 
there  might  be  a  chance  for  a  "pleasant "  encounter. 

These  "wise  counsels"  were  duly  treasured  up  in  the  heart 
of  hearts  of  the  "bully,"  and  a  short  conversation  with  the 
outlaw  settled  the  preliminaries.  From  the  day  following, 
the  two  friends  were  seen  walking  together  every  afternoon, 
in  the  designated  part  of  the  inclosure  ;  but,  for  three  days 


A  IfEW  FIENDISH  ASSAULT.  397 

consecutively,  they  could  not  even  obtain  a  sight  of  the 
two  females.  Julia  had  been  warned,  and,  for  that  length 
of  time,  refused  even  to  go  out. 

The  fourth  day,  however,  there  was  no  possibility  of 
withstanding  the  temptation.  The  weather  was  splendid, 
the  air  oppressively  hot  inside  of  the  "brick  house,"  and 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  declared  that  it  was  killing,  as  well  as  ab- 
surd, to  remain  without  exercise,  when  there  was  yet  so 
much  cool  shade  in  the  Park.  Thus  the  "mother  and 
daughter"  went  out,  and  enjoyed  for  a  great  part  of  the 
afternoon  the  balmy  and  perfumed  air  of  the  large  district 
west  of  the  old  and  new  reservoirs.  They  could  not  have 
certainly  chosen  a  safer  spot.  The  walks  had  been  only 
lately  laid  out,  few  trees  planted.  The  original  ground  had 
been  lirst  bare,  and  to  give  it  directly  a  pleasant  aspect, 
only  clover  and  grass  had  been  sown  broadcast  on  its  ma- 
nured surface,  and  presented  to  the  delighted  eye  the  green- 
sward of  a  vast  meadow,  running  north  and  south,  and 
reaching,  at  the  west,  the  walls  of  the  Park.  The  outlaw 
and  his  friend,  highly  pleased  at  first,  when  they  saw  their 
victims  come  at  last,  were  almost  despairing  of  any  success 
at  the  sight  of  the  ladies,  after  a  walk  of  more  than  two 
hours,  taking  their  departure  toward  the  gate  at  Eighty- 
fifth  Street. 

"What  does  it  mean?"  said  the  outlaw  with  an  oath. 

"It  means,"  replied  his  friend,  "that  we  are  going  now 
to  have,  at  least,  a  chance." 

And  the  fellow  was  right.  He  knew  well  the  peculiarities 
of  the  neighborhood  which  he  had  tramped  so  often  in 
search  of  fowls,  butter,  and  eggs,  for  his  former  mistress, 
and  he  saw  with  pleasure  that  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  instead  of 
simply  following  Eighth  Avenue,  which  would  have  brought 
them  nearly  to  her  door,  took  to  the  right,  and  engaged 
herself  with  Julia  in  the  intricacies  of  the  wild  ground  in 
the  direction  of  Ninth  and  Tenth  Avenues  and  the  Bloom- 
Ingdale  Road.  The  lady,  in  fact,  wished  to  go  visit  a  friend, 
along  that  old  winding  thoroughfare,  before  going  home  for 
the  evening.     This  was  just  the  proper  moment  for  the  two 


398  LOUISA  KIREBRIBE. 

scoundrels.  They  eagerly  left  the  Park,  where  they  had 
remained  following  their  victims  with  their  eyes,  and  at  a 
quick  step  both  soon  gained  upon  the  two  females,  who  were 
walking  quite  leisurely.  A  step  more,  they  would  be  upon 
them ;  and,  no  car  being  visible  on  the  Eighth  Avenue,  no 
policeman  in  sight,  no  traveler  in  the  neighborhood,  they 
felt  sure  of  their  prey,  and  pounced  upon  them  in  a  sunken 
lot,  covered  with  briers,  stunted  shrubs,  and  ruins  of  old 
buildings,  the  very  place  for  the  execution  of  a  devilish  plot. 

As  agreed  previously  between  them,  George,  who  had  no 
grudge  personally  against  Julia,  but  thought  he  had  a  seri- 
ous one  against  his  former  mistress,  was  to  overpower  her, 
throw  her  on  the  ground,  rob  her  of  the  jewels  and  money 
he  thought  she  still  possessed,  and  leave  her  to  her  fate, 
after  threatening  her  with  death  if  she  revealed  his  name. 
Schwitz  did  not  think  of  jewels  and  money,  but  wished 
only  to  revenge  himself  of  the  ruin  brought  on  him,  he 
imagined,  by  his  enemy,  Cornelius,  in  the  most  sensible 
manner  for  a  brother,  namely,  by  destroying  the  honor  of 
his  sister.  The  two  fiends  had  already  effected  the  separa- 
tion of  the  ladies,  and,  without  attaching  any  importance 
to  their  screams,  seized  them  violently,  and  proceeded  to 
execute  their  abominable  purpose. 

Providence,  however,  was  watching  over  imperiled  virtue ; 
and  although  neither  on  Eighth  or  Ninth  Avenue,  nor  in 
the  neighboring  streets,  there  was  anybody  ready  to  bring 
help  to  innocence,  and  defeat  such  a  horrible  crime,  the  old 
Bloomingdale  Road  had,  from  the  beginning  of  the  attack, 
offered  to  the  looker-on  a  speck  unperceived  by  the  villains, 
who  looked  in  every  direction  but  this  one.  A  small  car- 
riage, led  by  a  spirited  pony,  and  containing  two  i:)ersons — 
young  men,  evidently — was  going  south  along  the  old  thor- 
oughfare, when  the  two  scoundrels  started  on  a  run  after 
their  victims.  The  driver  stopped  his  horse  a  moment, 
looked  at  the  strange  scene,  and,  perceiving  two  ladies  pur- 
sued evidently  by  two  villains,  gave  the  proper  direction  to 
his  vehicle,  in  spite  of  the  unlevel  ground  and  broken  roads, 
and  was  in  the  proximity  of  the  place,  when  the  ruffians. 


A  NEW  FIENDISH  ASSAULT.  399 

unaware  of  it,  had  already  their  hands  on  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
and  Julia.  This  last  young  lady  was  the  first  to  perceive 
their  deliverer,  and,  recognizing  him  at  once,  she  ex- 
claimed :  "Help  us,  Mr.  McElheran,  help  us  !  "  It  was,  in 
fact,  no  one  else  but  the  young  gentleman  mth  whom  we 
are  akeady  acquainted. 

"Bally"  George  was  the  first  to  abandon  the  lady  ;  he 
had,  in  fact,  less  courage  and  was  less  advanced  in  despera- 
tion than  his  companion.  Neither  of  them,  fortunately, 
had  brought  firearms,  expecting  to  meet  only  two  inoffen- 
sive women,  and  George  was  already  running  away  when 
the  two  young  gentlemen  jumped  out  of  their  wagon,  and 
came  to  the  rescue.  Schwitz  being  yet  clinched  with  Julia, 
McElheran  and  his  friend  ran  on  him,  and  they  were  on  the 
point  of  seizing  him  when  the  outlaw,  unwillingly  leaving 
his  victim,  stood  up  bold  and  defiant,  threatening  to  strike 
on  the  head  with  a  heavy  stone  he  held  in  his  hand,  any 
one  who  should  touch  him. 

"Devir,"  said  coolly  McElheran  to  his  friend,  "attend 
to  the  ladies,  and  let  me  deal  Avith  this  scoundrel." 

He  had  in  his  pocket  a  Derringer  pistol,  without  which 
he  seldom  traveled  in  this  neighborhood,  and  showing  it  to 
Schwitz,  he  said : 

"Throw  that  stone  down  or  I  will  make  you  do  it." 

The  outlaw  saw  the  determination  of  the  young  man,  and 
did  not  dare  to  raise  his  arm.  He  had  made  uj)  his  mind, 
however,  not  to  be  taken  without  a  stout  resistance,  as  he 
knew  the  fate  which  awaited  him.  He  kept,  therefore,  his 
clumsy  weapon,  but  with  his  hand  down,  and  said  : 

"  Let  me  go  and  I  shall  not  strike." 

"I  will  see  that  you  shall  not  strike,  but  I  shall  not  let 
you  go,"  responded  McElheran. 

Goaded  to  madness,  Schwitz  raised  his  arm  to  hurl  the 
stone,  but  the  young  gentleman,  sure  of  his  aim,  leveled 
his  small  weapon  and  the  ball  going  at  once  through  the 
hand  of  the  outlaw,  the  stone  fell  heavily  on  the  ground, 
and  Schwitz  was  afterward  easily  overpowered,  bound  with 
his  own  long  neckerchief,  which  he  wore  in  the  fashion  of 


400  LOUISA  KntKBRIDE. 

a  sailor,  and  obliged  to  walk  back  to  the  nearest  gate  of 
the  Central  Park,  where,  generally,  police  officers  could  be 
found.  The  first  one  they  met  easily  recognized  the  out- 
law, whose  photograph  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  in 
the  rogues'  gallery,  and  who  had  been  lately  the  great  talk 
of  the  guardians  of  order ;  and  with  many  thanks  to  his 
captor  he  secured  the  prize,  which  was  faithfully  lodged,  a 
couple  of  hours  afterward,  in  the  never-forgotten  apartment 
in  the  Tombs  Schwitz  had  formerly  occupied. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  could  not  think  any  more  of  visiting  just 
now  her  friends  on  the  Bloomingdale  Eoad  ;  so  that  the 
whole  party  on  foot,  Mr.  McElheran  leading  his  pony  by 
the  bridle,  took  the  direction  of  the  lonely  ''brick  house," 
where  Rosa  was  still  perfectly  ignorant  of  what  had  hap- 
pened. Judge  of  her  surprise  when  she  saw  two  strange  gen- 
tlemen and  an  empty  wagon  coming  to  the  door  in  company 
with  Mrs.  Kirkbride  and  Julia.  The  noise  was  such  and  so 
unusual  that  the  Froments  up  stairs — the  gentleman  had  just 
returned  from  the  city — heard  it  in  spite  of  themselves,  put 
their  heads  over  the  top  of  the  banisters,  and  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride, perceiving  her  friends  with  little  Arthur,  begged  of 
them  all  to  come  down  to  her  parlor  and  hear  the  wonder- 
ful story.  There,  in  that  small  room,  cozy  and  nice,  cer- 
tainly, but  not  over  large,  you  had  the  most  numerous 
party  that  had  yet  been  seen  in  it  since  the  coming  of 
the  three  females.  Our  former  friend,  Mr.  McElheran,  had 
heard  with  sorrow,  in  their  walk  home,  of  the  death  of  old 
Mrs.  0' Byrne  ;  but  he  knew  by  common  report  that  young 
O' Byrne  was  the  terror  of  evil  doers  all  over  the  city,  and 
the  family  to  which  he  belonged  was  worthy  of  his  respect. 
Julia  chiefly,  whom  he  had  rescued  so  opportunely,  all  red 
from  the  excitement  of  tlie  recent  struggle  and  the  sudden 
and  pleasant  reaction  from  her  alarm  and  despair,  appeared 
to  him  far  more  lovely  yet  than  she  had  looked  at  their 
first  meeting  in  the  Park,  when  he  dropped  his  whip,  the 
rogue,  to  have  an  occasion  of  pressing  her  hand  in  his  own, 
and  of  giving  her  some  direction  about  the  hood  of  her 
mother.     But  how  had  she  come  from  the  palatial  mansion 


A  NEW  FIENDISH  ASSAULT.  401 

she  then  lived  in,  to  the  unpretending  house  and  wild 
neighborhood  where  she  now  resided  ?  He  heard,  with  a 
great  deal  of  interest,  the  narrative  of  it,  veiled  certainly, 
and  scarcely  clear  enough  to  be  perfectly  understood  ;  and 
becoming  aware  for  the  first  time  that  the  gentle  lady  whose 
daughter  Julia  seemed  to  be,  was,  in  fact,  the  mother  of 
young  Kirkbride,  whose  sad  fate  was  known  to  all  ]N'ew 
York  as  that  of  one  of  the  most  deplorable  victims  of 
''Black  Friday,"  he  could  not  but  feel  a  deep  sympathy 
for  both. 

After  the  late  fright  of  the  party,  the  attack  of  the  two 
villains,  and  the  providential  rescue  had  been  briefly  nar- 
rated to  the  wondering  Rosa,  and  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Froment, 
young  McElheran  had  to  relate  how  he  found  himself  so 
unexpectedly  on  the  scene.  He  lived  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Manhattanville,  where  he  practiced  medicine,  less  for  a 
living,  as  he  possessed  a  handsome  competency,  than  for 
an  honorable  occupation,  and  for  the  desire  of  being  useful 
to  the  poor.  On  that  day,  some  business  or  other  called 
him  to  Xew  York ;  and  his  friend,  young  Devir,  lately 
arrived  from  Europe,  having  dined  with  him,  they  both 
started  in  his  small  carriage  along  the  Bloomingdale  Road. 
The  rest  is  known  to  our  readers  ;  but  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  in 
expressing  her  heartfelt  thanks,  could  not  but  remark  that 
all  the  circumstances  showed  the  acting  iDart  of  a  Power 
superior  to  that  of  man.  Even  the  apparently  accidental 
presence  of  the  young  stranger  from  Europe  had  been  neces- 
sary to  the  success  of  the  affair.  Mr.  McElheran  alone 
would  not  have  been  able  to  put  an  end  so  soon  and  so  effec- 
tually to  the  intended  crime  ;  the  hour  of  the  mutual  meet- 
ing had  evidently  been  arranged  beforehand  by  a  kind  provi- 
dence ;  and  all  present  had  to  be  grateful  to  God.  But  she 
understood  well  that  the  secondary  agents  who  are  instru- 
mental in  doing  good,  deserve  all  the  merit  of  their  disin- 
terested action,  chiefly  as  they  are  the  willing,  as  well  as 
necessary  means,  used  by  our  Father  in  Heaven  for  the 
fulfillment  of  his  kind  designs.  She  Avould,  therefore,  be 
ever  grateful  to  the  two  young  gentlemen,  whom  she  de- 
2G 


402  LOUISA  KntEBRIDE. 

lighted  to  call  lier  and  Julia's  saviors,  and  whenever  they 
hapiDened  to  pass  near  her  poor  house,  she  hoped  they  would 
stop  at  it,  if  it  were  only  for  an  instant,  and  do  the  inmates 
the  honor  of  a  visit. 

Dr.  McElheran  replied,  in  a  few  words,  that  he  would  not 
fail  to  profit  frequently  by  the  indulgence  of  the  lady,  and 
as  Mr.  Devir,  his  friend,  could  not  so  often  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  doing  so,  he  himself  would,  in  a  few  days,  arrange 
in  his  own  house,  a  little  meeting  of  all  present,  and  hoped 
that  all  would  be  there,  on  that  day,  with  Miss  Julia's 
brother,  whom  he  knew  by  reputation,  but  not  yet  person- 
ally. He  was  himself  a  bachelor,  and  could  not  promise 
them  the  fare  of  a  prince  ;  still,  joy  and  happiness  would 
reign  for  a  few  hours  around  his  board,  and  there  would  be 
henceforth  a  greater  intimacy  between  so  many  new  friends. 

At  this  moment,  Rosa,  who  had,  at  a  sign  from  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride,  left  the  room  a  few  moments  before,  appeared  loaded 
with  things  which  she  was  bringing  from  below ;  a  little 
side  table,  which  stood  near  one  of  the  windows  of  the  small 
parlor,  was  soon  groaning  under  all  sorts  of  refreshments, 
and  with  smiles  and  good  words  the  simple  rites  of  an  im- 
provised hospitality  were  calculated  to  render  more  firm 
and  lasting  the  scarcely  formed  ties  of  their  new  friendship. 

When  McElheran  raised  to  his  lips  the  small  glass  which 
contained  a  few  drops  of  bright  liquid,  he  could  not  help 
seeing  the  girl  who  held  the  tray  ;  but  he  did  not  even 
know  her  name.     The  lady  perceived  it,  and  said : 

*'This  is  Miss  Eosa  McCarthy,  doctor,  my  second  daugh- 
ter (Julia  was  the  first)  ;  she  is  a  countrywoman  of  yours  ; 
for,  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  I  have,  after  having  lost 
everything  else,  found  Irish  children." 

''  It  is,  madam,  the  old  story,"  replied  young  McElheran  ; 
^*we  Irish  always  end  by  conquering  our  conquerors;  but 
nobody  can  be  surprised  at  it,  in  this  case  ;  these  two  young 
ladies  are  made  for  you,  as  you  are  yourself  made  for  them. 
So,  having  drunk  the  first  glass  in  your  honor,  allow  me  to 
pour  out  and  drink  a  second  one  in  honor  of  your  daugh- 
ters, as  you  are  pleased  to  call  them." 


A  NEW  FIENDISH  ASSAULT,  403 

Little  Arthur  Froment,  evidently  annoyed  at  not  being 
noticed  and  petted,  went  at  this  very  instant,  with  a  big 
apple  which  his  two  hands  could  scarcely  hold,  and  offered 
it  sans  ceremonie  to  the  lion  of  the  day. 

''And  you,  little  imp,  are  you  an  Irish  boy  too?"  said 
the  young  doctor,  laughing. 

I  am  sorry  for  your  mistake,"  interposed  the  lady, 

but  it  is  my  fault — everything  has  been  done  to-day 
against  all  possible  rules  ;  but  better  late  than  never.  Al- 
low me,  sir,  to  introduce  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Froment,  the  parents 
of  the  child  ;  they  are  from  France,  and  very  kind  neigh- 
bors to  us  ;  in  fact,  we  live  all  together  and  form  but  one 
family." 

"  So  you  are  French,  my  lad,"  exclaimed  McElheran,  tak- 
ing Arthur  in  his  arms  and  kissing  him  ;  "  will  you  not  one 
day  help  us  to  whip  the  English  in  spite  of  Mrs.  Kirkbricle  ? " 

''I  will,  I  will,"  shouted  Arthur;  "but  we  must  spare 
Mrs.  Kirkbride,  she  gives  me  candy  and  apples." 

When  McElheran  and  Devir  left,  all  in  the  room  were 
splitting  with  laughter ;  and  the  house  had  never  before 
been  in  such  an  uproar. 

This  was  the  evening  of  July  1st — we  have  been  lately  out 
of  date — and  after  the  usual  calm  had  been  restored  to  the 
house,  as  the  time  of  retiring  had  arrived,  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
with  her  two  young  companions  said  prayers.  From  the 
day  they  came  to  live  in  this  house,  it  had  been  found  too 
inconvenient,  and,  in  fact,  "unbecoming"  to  have  their 
prayers  apart,  and  they  agreed  to  say  them  together.  Julia 
found  no  difficulty  in  persuading  ' '  her  mother ' '  to  use  the 
Catholic  prayer  book,  and  the  lady,  who  had  been  lately 
reading  the  "Lives  of  the  Saints,"  found  great  comfort 
in  reciting  the  "Litany."  She  had  been  acquainted  all 
her  life  with  the  names — the  mere  names — of  St.  Paul,  St. 
James,  St.  Andrew,  St.  John,  St.  Philip,  and  several  other 
apostles  ;  but  she  knew  nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  not 
only  of  Saints  Fabian  and  Sebastian,  Cosmas  and  Damian, 
without  speaking  of  St.  Dominic,  St.  Francis,  St.  Bernard, 


404  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

etc. ,  bnt  also  she  completely  ignored  the  galaxy  of  holy 
women  whose  virtues  have  perfumed  the  annals  of  the 
Christian  Church,  namely,  St.  Mary  Magdalen,  St.  Agatha, 
St.  Lucy,  St.  Agnes,  St.  Cecily,  to  speak  only  of  a  few. 
I^ow,  however,  as  she  had  read  their  lives,  she  found  a  real 
delight  in  reciting  their  names  every  evening,  and  hearing 
"her  daughters  "  answer  :   "  Pray  for  us." 

But  this  night,  after  prayers  were  ended,  she  said  to 
Julia  and  Rosa :  ' '  We  would  be,  indeed,  ungrateful  were 
we  to  forget  to  thank  God  publicly  for  our  deliverance  to- 
day.    We  must  all  go  to  church  together,  to-morrow  morn- 


ing." 


The  reader  must  know  that  the  lady  having  no  more  any 
carriage  of  her  own,  could  not  go  any  longer  to  Trinity  ; 
and  so  she  accompanied  her  two  young  friends  to  the  near- 
est Catholic  church,  that  of  St.  Laurence,  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Park,  where  she  had  continued,  up  to  this  day,  to 
carry  her  American  prayer  book. 

*'  We  are  glad  of  it,  madam,"  Julia  replied ;  "to-morrow, 
the  second  of  July,  the  day  of  the  Visitation  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary,  has  been  assigned  by  the  clergyman  whose  in- 
structions Rosa  receives,  for  the  day  of  her  first  commu- 
nion. Rosa,  it  is  true,  laughed  so  much,  this  afternoon, 
that  she  hesitated,  and  before  we  came  to  prayers  she  told 
me  it  would  perhaps  be  better  to  put  it  off  for  another  day. 
I  answered  she  was  becoming  too  scrupulous ;  she  could 
cry,  if  she  chose,  for  an  hour  this  evening,  before  going  to 
bed,  to  atone  for  her  unusual  levity ;  but  she  must  at  least 
go  to  church  to-morrow  and  refer  the  case  to  the  clergy- 
man :  and  that  I  myself  would  go  with  her,  and  intended 
to  receive  with  her,  if  the  priest  allowed  it.  We  are,  there- 
fore, delighted,  madam,  to  have  you  present  at  the  cere- 
mony ;  and  we  all  will  offer  our  prayers  in  thanksgiving  for 
the  great  favor  we  have  to-day  received.  I,  more  than  any 
other,  ought  to  be  grateful,  and  if  no  one  else  come,  I  will 
certainly  go." 

This  was  the  arrangement  decided  upon ;  and  we  cannot 
say  if  Rosa  spent  an  hour  that  night  crying  and  bewailing 


A  NEW  FIENDISH  ASSAULT.  405 

according  to  the  wise  direction  of  Julia ;  but  we  know  that 
before  starting  the  following  day  Mrs.  Kirkbride  called 
Julia  to  her  room  : 

''I  would  like,"  she  said,  "to  follow  closely  what  is 
going  to  take  place  for  Kosa,  when  she  makes  her  first  com- 
munion ;  and  my  prayer  book  hardly  can  be  a  safe  guide 
for  an  occasion  such  as  this ;  find  me  one,  Julia,  with  all 
possible  details,  that  I  may  understand  something  at  least 
of  what  is  going  to  take  place." 

One  was  easily  procured  where  all  the  different  parts  of 
the  "Sacrifice  of  the  Mass"  were  explained  at  length,  to- 
gether with  the  usual  "Exercises  for  Holy  Communion;" 
and  the  party  started  very  early  indeed,  in  order  to  have  a 
talk  with  the  clergyman,  before  Mass  began.  This  talk  was 
nothing  else  than  confession,  to  call  it  by  its  right  name ; 
and  when  Julia  and  Rosa  came  out  one  after  another,  it  was 
evident  that  the  priest  had  overruled  Miss  McCarthy's  scru- 
ples, since,  after  going  back  to  kneel  near  the  lady,  she 
opened  her  book  at  the  "  Devotions  for  Holy  Communion." 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  surprised,  as  it  was  a  week-day,  to  see 
so  many  people  in  the  church;  and  there  was  in  fact  quite  a 
respectable  congregation  ;  but  when  on  returning  home  she 
asked  an  explanation,  her  surprise  was  still  greater  on  hear- 
ing the  two  reasons  to  explain  the  number  of  people.  First 
it  was  a  "feast  day,"  and  secondly,  a  good  many  of  Rosa's 
female  friends  in  the  neighboring  shanties,  knowing  be- 
forehand that  she  would  receive  her  first  communion  this 
day,  had  agreed  together  to  accompany  her  to  the  holy  table. 

"You  see,  madam,"  said  Julia,  "that  we  are  a  clannish 
people." 

"  I  fully  understand  it  now,"  replied  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

But  what  is  it  that,  during  the  services  she  had  read  in 
the  book  of  her  young  friend,  made  on  her  good  heart  a 
stronger  impression  than  she  had  imagined  ever  could  hap- 
pen ?  Dr.  Dixon  had  done  his  best  to  explain  to  her  the 
meaning  of  the  dogma  of  the  real  presence  of  Christ  in  the 
Holy  Eucharist,  but  he  had  merely  puzzled  the  good  lady,  be- 
cause in  his  anxiety  to  avoid  "superstition "  and  all  that,  he 


406  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE, 

added  things  of  liis  own,  refrained  from  using  the  neces- 
sary word  '^transubstantiation,"  and  found  on  his  lips  no 
glowing  words  of  ecstasy  to  celebrate  the  love  of  an  incarnate 
God  coming  to  dwell  in  the  bosom  of  His  creature.  But  the 
"Devotions  for  Holy  Communion,"  contained  in  the  book 
given  her  by  Julia,  spoke  very  differently,  and  the  excel- 
lent lady  understood,  at  once,  that  if  Christ  were  present  in 
the  Sacrament,  and  if  a  human  being  received  him  really, 
the  warm  expressions,  the  burning  desire,  the  glowing  thank- 
fulness, the  real  ecstasy  must  be  exactly  as  the  book  had  it. 

Thus  as  soon  as  they  reached  home,  the  lady,  holding  the 
two  girls  by  the  hand,  led  them  silently  to  her  room,  and 
tenderly  kissing  both  of  them,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  she 
merely  said : 

''You  are  happy  indeed,  children,  for  you  have  Christ 
with  you  ;  and  I  really  now  for  the  lirst  time  doubt  if  I  ever 
received  Him  in  my  life." 

When  the  news  reached  police  headquarters  that  Schwitz 
the  outlaw  had  been  finally  caught  again,  and  was  now 
safely  lodged  in  the  Tombs,  there  was  a  stir  among  the  guar- 
dians of  the  city  such  as  had  not  been  seen  for  a  long  time. 
Revelations  were  expected  from  him,  and  means  were  imme- 
diately taken  to  obtain  them.  The  old  system  for  this  ob- 
ject prevailed  still,  and  Mr.  0' Byrne,  who  had  several  times 
expressed  his  dislike  of  it,  was  not  consulted  even  in  the  pres- 
ent case.  This  system  was  called  that  of  ''  stool  pigeons." 
Whenever  a  malefactor  of  some  importance  had  been  caught, 
he  was  placed  alone  in  a  cell,  and  then  a  suj)posed  prisoner 
was  given  him  as  a  companion,  who  soon  induced  him  to 
talk  freely,  as  to  a  friend,  and  disclose  many  plots,  unknown 
to  the  police,  and  the  names  and  abodes  of  several  guilty 
accomplices.  This  was  the  degrading  office  of  the  "stool 
pigeon."  If  the  first  did  not  succeed,  a  second  one  was 
sent,  and  then  another,  until  at  last  the  jailbird  sang  out, 
and  furnished  unconsciously  the  evidence  required  for  fur- 
ther police  schemes  and  discoveries.  Mr.  O' Byrne,  when 
first  informed  of  this  custom  in  the  training  of  his  profes- 


A  iVE'TF  FIENDISH  ASSAULT.  407 

sion,  openly  spoke  of  the  practice  as  degrading,  and  said  lie 
would  never  give  in  to  it.  To  send  spies  in  public  places 
wliere  tlie  conspirators  against  society  arrange  their  crimi- 
nal plans,  was  sufficiently  to  be  deplored,  yet  as  a  necessary 
measure,  it  could  not  be  avoided.  But  to  feign  friendship, 
and  lay  an  ambush  to  take  confidence  prisoner,  when  it 
ought  always  to  be  free,  was  more  than  the  soul  of  an  hon- 
est man  could  allow.  This  was  his  first  natural  feeling  in 
which  he  constantly  persevered.  But  as  we  already  said,  he 
was  not  consulted  in  the  matter,  and  several  ''  stool  pigeons" 
having  been  dispatched  successively  to  the  cell  of  Schwitz, 
his  whole  history,  from  his  first  escape  by  the  means  of  the 
bribes  of  John,  to  his  last  capture  under  the  Derringer  of 
McElheran,  became  known  to  the  police.  This  included  a 
space  of  time  of  nearly  two  years,  during  which  the  outlaw 
had  been  connected  more  or  less  with  all  the  most  extensive 
and  outrageous  developments  of  crime  in  New  York. 

These  revelations,  arranged  and  put  in  racy  style  by  a 
skillful  journalist,  formed  a  good-sized  manuscript  pamphlet, 
written  at  the  request  and  expense  of  tlie  chief  of  police, 
who  wished  to  have  it  kept  in  the  archives  of  his  depart- 
ment. No  copy,  of  course,  was  furnished  to  the  newspa- 
pers ;  and  the  writer  himself  promised  faithfully  not  to 
reveal  anything  of  it  to  the  public.  But  the  police  authori- 
ties were  directly  struck,  when  reading  it,  at  the  correctness 
of  the  surmises  and  positive  discoveries  made  previously  by 
Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne.  So  that  he  justly  became  hence- 
forth a  more  important  man  in  their  eyes,  and  was  subse- 
quently consulted  on  all  matters  of  consequence.  This 
very  coincidence,  however,  of  the  revelations  obtained  by 
''stool  pigeons"  and  of  those  he  had  himself  obtained  by 
his  youthful  informers,  confirmed  him  in  his  dislike  for  the 
practice  of  stool-2ngeonlsm^  if  we  may  be  allowed  to  coin  a 
word  ;  and  he  argued  that  as  the  same  knowledge  could  be 
acquired  by  the  simple  method  he  had  used,  there  was  no 
need  of  having  recourse  to  so  degrading  a  j)rocess  as  the 
police  authorities  had  resorted  to  in  the  case  of  Schwitz. 

But  whatever  means  had  been  employed,  the  chief  dan- 


408  LOUISA  EIBKBRIDE. 

gers  incurred  by  the  city  were  now  known,  and  a  number 
of  criminals  were  quietly  called  upon  to  surrender,  and 
carried  without  noise  to  the  large  establishment  of  Centre 
Street.  The  several  trials  which  followed  scarcely  pertain 
to  our  subject,  and  are  better  passed  over,  with  the  simple 
remark,  that  Schwitz  was  not  bound  only  to  begin  again 
the  term  of  his  previous  sentence,  but  ten  years  additional 
were  justly  imposed  on  him  for  his  last  dastardly  outrage. 
His  whole  life,  in  fact,  was  to  be  spent  within  the  walls  of 
Sing  Sing. 

George,  unfortunately,  could  not  be  found  by  the  poKce 
officers  ;  he  was  not  one  of  those  who  could  sleep  easy,  after 
such  an  escape  as  that  of  the  Bloomingdale  Road.  He  knew 
that  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  recognized  him  ;  he  was  sure  to  be 
pursued  to  death  by  O' Byrne  ;  he  did  not,  therefore,  return 
to  his  old  haunts,  but  took  a  northwesterly  direction,  where 
we  may  find  him  later,  not  very  far  from  Spuyten  Duy vil 
Creek. 

Mr.  O' Byrne,  meanwhile,  having  now  secured  the  confi- 
dence of  his  chiefs,  labored  incessantly  for  the  good  of  the 
city,  and  defeated,  with  conspicuous  success,  several  plun- 
dering schemes.  He  was  just  in  the  flush  of  victory,  when 
the  day  arrived  for  the  pleasant  meeting  arranged  by  Dr. 
McElheran. 


CHAPTER  XXYII. 

AN  lEISH  DINNER. 

When  going  south  from  the  village  of  Manhattanville  to 
the  city,  the  traveler,  who  follows  the  Bloomingdale  Road, 
ascends  first  a  steep  hill  lined  on  both  sides  by  cottages, 
mansions,  and  perhaps  an  old  farmhouse.  Soon  the  high 
plateau  is  reached,  and  the  roadway  runs  nearly  level  and 
parallel  to  the  North  River,  there  visible  and  quite  near. 
The  Boulevard  did  not  then  exist ;  and  the  whole  landscape 
had  a  venerable  air  usual  in  an  old  country,  and  suggesting 
the  idea  of  rest  and  comfort.  A  residence  to  the  left  direct- 
ly struck  the  beholder  by  its  stately  appearance,  although 
only  of  wood,  and  rather  antiquated,  if  there  still,  at  the 
present  moment.  The  late  rapid  strides  in  modern  improve- 
ment in  that  part  of  the  island,  leave  us  some  doubt  on  the 
subject. 

Extensive  grounds  around  the  house  had  been  laid  out 
before  the  present  refined  taste  for  gardening  prevailed ; 
but  the  want  of  gracefulness  in  landscape  was  compensated 
by  the  numerous  shade  trees,  planted  more  than  twenty 
years  back,  and  revealing  now,  in  summer,  all  the  vigor  and 
freshness  of  their  youth.  The  mansion  itself  was  roomy — 
too  large,  in  fact,  for  a  bachelor  ;  but  Mr.  McElheran  was  a 
naturalist  as  well  as  a  physician.  All  the  collections  he 
had  made  in  the  old  country,  and  all  those  he  gathered, 
since  he  came  to  live  in  this,  could  be  spread  to  the  best 
advantage  before  the  friends  who  visited  him.  A  small  con- 
servatory, opening  into  the  very  parlor,  filled  the  apartment 
with  perfume  ;  and  the  gentle  murmur  of  a  small  stream  of 

409 


410  LOUISA  KLRKBRIDE. 

water  falling  from  a  bronze  pipe  into  the  midst  of  a  grace- 
ful little  marble  basin,  gave  to  a  lialf  dozen  canary  birds, 
suspended  in  their  tiny  cages,  an  irrepressible  eagerness 
to  drown  its  feeble  noise  by  the  voluble  melody  of  their 
throats.  But  except  this  harmonious  contest,  everything 
around  breathed  silence  and  stillness.  The  mansion,  built 
at  a  distance  from  the  road,  scarcely  allowed  the  creaking 
of  the  carriage  wheels  and  the  stamping  of  horses  to  reach 
the  inner  apartments.  The  abundant  means  possessed  by 
Mr.  McElheran,  had  enabled  him  to  rent  this  pleasant  re- 
treat, much  too  large  for  a  bachelor,  but  suitable  to  his  taste 
for  a  country  life,  and  to  his  secret  hankering  after  ample 
room  for  exercise  and  meditation.  His  object  had  never 
been  to  make  money  ;  otherwise,  he  would  have  resided  in 
the  city,  and  multiplied  indefinitely  his  capital  by  specula- 
tion. His  attraction  led  him  toward  a  life  of  refined  ease 
and  scientific  investigations.  Hence,  if  the  surroundings  of 
his  residence  w^ere  iDromotive  of  the  first,  many  of  its  rooms 
were  devoted  to  the  second.  He  possessed  a  collection  of 
objects  of  natural  history,  chiefly  relating  to  the  medical 
art,  which  would  have  been  considered  large  everywhere 
for  a  young  man  of  his  age  ;  and  his  library  was  select  and 
well  furnished  with  scientific  books.  His  means,  we  have 
said,  were  abundant ;  yet  he  could  not  be  considered  a  rich 
man  in  such  a  city  as  New  York ;  and  being  provident  as 
well  as  liberal,  lie  at  least  sustained  a  great  part  of  his  ex- 
pense by  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In  his  neighbor- 
hood a  great  number  of  respectable  families  dwelt,  to  whom 
he  soon  became  known,  and  who  gave  him  their  confidence, 
and  intrusted  their  health  to  his  care ;  but  he,  moreover, 
never  refused  to  visit  the  poor  and  needy,  among  Avhom  he 
was  considered  as  a  benefactor  and  a  friend. 

In  such  circumstances,  it  appears  surprising  that  he  w^as 
not  yet  married,  being  nearly  thirty  years  of  age ;  and  he 
had  only  to  declare  his  choice  to  be  sure  of  not  meeting  with 
a  refusal ;  but  he  had  long  before  determined  in  his  mind 
to  require  of  his  future  wife  two  conditions  not  so  easy  to 
find,  toward  the  north  end  of  the  Bloomingdale  Iload,  as  one 


A]^  IRISH  DINNER,  411 

would  imagine.  The  first  was  that  she  should  be  Irish — thor- 
oughly so  ;  the  second,  that  her  virtue  should  have  been  tried, 
actually  tried,  so  as  not  to  leave  any  doubt  of  its  being  solid. 
Now,  very  few  Irish  families  above  the  lowest  class  lived  at 
that  time  in  the  neighborhood  of  Manhattanville,  and  those 
young  ladies  whom  he  knew  there,  excellent  certainly,  most 
pious,  and  respectable,  had  never  passed  through  any  moral 
trial  such  as  he  required.  They  had  been  quietly  brought 
up  in  decent  families,  educated  in  convents,  and  were,  at  the 
time,  taken  into  good  society  under  their  mothers'  wings. 
He  wanted  a  great  deal  more. 

This,  we  are  sure,  will  make  Mr.  McElheran  appear  a  very 
strange  young  man  in  the  eyes  of  many  of  our  readers  ;  but 
he  was  a  full-blooded  Irishman  ;  and  people  know  that  such 
creatures  are  often  eccentric,  and  there  is  no  accounting  for 
theu"  taste.  His  first  meeting  with  good  old  Mrs.  O' Byrne 
and  Julia  has  already  furnished  us  a  strong  proof  of  it. 

These  remarks  were  necessary  for  us  to  fully  understand 
what  is  to  follow  ;  and  we  can  proceed  to  the  pleasant  task 
of  narrating  the  particularities  of  the  afternoon  in  July 
which  was  to  gather  in  Mr.  McElheran' s  country  house  so 
many  new  friends,  all  of  them,  without  exception,  distin- 
guished by  the  best  qualities  of  mind  and  heart. 

Two  carriages  had  been  sent  to  the  house  of  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride,  in  one  of  which  the  three  ladies  took  their  seats  with 
Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne,  and  in  the  other  only  the  gay  and 
happy  French  family.  They  came  together  thundering  in 
front  of  the  house,  where  the  young  doctor  with  his  friend 
Devir  were  awaiting  them.  Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  first  ad- 
mitted in,  and  placed  in  the  best  arm-chair  of  the  parlor ; 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Froment,  leading  little  Arthur  by  the  hand,  fol- 
lowed her ;  and  directly  after  them,  Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne, 
giving  his  arm  to  his  sister,  presented  her  to  Mr.  McElheran, 
who  willingly  took  charge  of  her.  Thus,  little  Rosa,  who 
was  just  coming  the  last  from  the  carriage,  did  not  appear 
to  be  displeased  to  find  the  arm  of  Mr.  0' Byrne  at  last  un- 
occupied, and  clung  to  it  all  blushing  as  if  she  had  been  a 
child  just  turned  out  of  the  nursery.    Devir  had  remained 


412  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

in  the  house  talking  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride  who  was  delighted 
with  the  ride,  and  in  gleeful  anticipation  of  a  most  pleasant 
afternoon. 

On  a  table  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  were  several  illus- 
trated works,  all  relating  to  Ireland — the  lakes  of  Killarney 
were  there,  and  the  noble  ruins  of  Cashel,  the  Giant  Cause- 
way, and  the  few  remains  of  the  seven  churches  of  holy  Ar- 
ran  ;  Dublin  and  its  harbor.  Limerick  with  the  broad  Shan- 
non, Cork  with  its  cove,  and  finally  Galway  with  the  view 
of  the  vast  ocean.  Mrs.  Kirkbride  opened  her  eyes  when 
she  saw  there  were  so  many  things  in  that  little  island.  She 
asked  what  bust  adorned  the  marble  mantelpiece,  and  the 
young  doctor  answered  :  ' '  O'  Connell'  s,  of  course,  madam  ; ' ' 
and  many  questions  and  answers  of  this  kind  were  put  and 
returned.  The  canaries  were,  at  the  time,  singing  furiously 
in  the  little  conservatory ;  McElheran  appeared  annoyed, 
went  in  a  hurry  to  shut  the  door,  and  directly  a  few  sweet 
notes  were  heard  from  a  bird,  until  that  moment  unper- 
ceived,  perched  gloomily  in  a  cage  in  a  corner  of  the  parlor. 
McElheran  stepped  up  in  front ;  the  bird  sprang  quickly 
from  perch  to  perch,  and  being  no  longer  Jealous  of  the 
deafening  song  of  the  yellow  strangers,  she  whistled  har- 
moniously her  own  tune,  and  the  ears  of  all  were  enchanted 
almost  as  if  it  had  been  the  warble  of  the  nightingale  ;  it 
was  an  Irish  thrush. 

''Doctor,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  ''I  see  a  harp  there,  not 
far  from  the  piano  ;  can  you  play  on  it  ? " 

"Very  poorly,  madam,"  he  answered  ;  ''it  is  the  instru- 
ment on  which  my  late  mother  used  to  play.  I  have  brought 
it  to  this  country,  and  would  not  dare  to  give  you  a  speci- 
men of  my  want  of  skill;  but  one  of  your  'daughters,' 
madam,  may  be  able ;  I  do  not  know — I  merely  inquire." 

At  these  words  Julia  blushed  deeply  and  appeared  to  be 
moved  to  the  inmost  recess  of  her  heart.  She  tried  to  hide 
herself  behind  her  brother,  who  stood  near  her  at  the  time ; 
but  unfeeling  Con  would  not  enter  into  her  attempt  at  con- 
cealment. He,  on  the  contrary,  made  room  to  bring  her 
forward,  and  said  that  "  she  might  have  forgotten,  but  for- 


AN  IRISH  DINNER,  413 

merly  she  knew  how  to  play  on  that  instrument."  There 
was  no  possibility  of  denying  it.  Poor  Julia,  however, 
tried  to  be  excused:  "She  learned  it,"  she  said,  "when 
she  was  a  child  in  the  convent  at  Enniscorthy ;  she  prac- 
ticed it  afterward  for  a  while  when  she  returned  home  ;  but 
when  their  misfortunes  began — a  long  time  ago — she  could 
not  think  of  doing  it  any  more.  Her  fingers  had  not  touched 
chords  of  that  sort  for  nearly  eight  years." 

"You  will  do  your  best,  Julia,"  said  Mr.  0' Byrne; 
"everybody  is  friendly  here,  and  I  am  sure  everybody  will 
be  pleased." 

Then,  standing  up,  the  young  woman  received  the  harp, 
which  McElheran  placed  gracefully  and  affectionately  in 
her  hands.  She  tuned  it,  and  it  was  a  hard  job,  as  it  had 
not  been  used  for  a  long  time  ;  but  the  young  doctor  helped 
her  in  a  brotherly  way,  which  calmed  her  nerves  and  made 
her  more  composed  and  able  to  fulfill  her  part.  When  after 
a  short  prelude,  her  fingers  became  again  accustomed  to  the 
wide  compass  of  the  numerous  strings,  the  melody  of  her 
voice  began  gently  to  enter  into  the  full  harmony,  and 
gradually  swelling  higher  and  higher,  the  music  filled  the 
room  with  such  tender  and  heart  moving  sounds,  that  long 
before  she  stopped,  tears  were  flowing  from,  or  at  least 
moistening  the  eyes  of,  all  in  the  room. 

McElheran  ran  to  thank  her.  "  Was  it  possible  that  she 
had  not  touched  a  harp  for  eight  years  ? " 

"  It  is  sure,"  said  Con  ;  "yet  I  never  heard  her  play  and 
sing  so  well ;  how  is  it,  Julia  ?    It  is  a  puzzle,  even  to  me." 

Julia  said  she  could  scarcely  explain  it ;  but  she  sup- 
posed that  when  she  played  formerly  in  her  family  she  was 
merely  a  child,  had  had  no  experience  of  life,  and  had 
passed  through  no  trial  worth  naming.  But  after  so  many 
vicissitudes,  she  felt  what  she  did  not  feel  formerly,  and 
could  not  help  giving  a  great  deal  more  expression  to  the 
words  and  the  music. 

"Come  to  kiss  me,  child,"  exclaimed  at  that  moment 
Mrs.  Kirkbride ;  "others  have  praised  you,  I  must  scold 
you.     Why  did  you  not  tell  me  before  you  were  a  musician  I 


414  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

Wliat  happy  times  we  would  have  had  !    If  I  were  as  rich 
as  formerly  I  would  buy  a  harp  this  very  day  for  you." 

"Madam,"  interposed  the  doctor,  "she  shall  have  this 
one  ;  I  will  send  it  to  your  house  before  night,  till  you  can 
procure  another  for  her  ;  this  being  an  heirloom  from  a  dear 
mother  I  cannot  give  away." 

Such  was  the  animated  conversation  going  on  when  a 
waiter  dressed  in  a  green  coat  with  white  breeches  and 
stockings  announced  that  dinner  was  ready ;  and  thus  all 
voices  were  hushed,  and  all  passed  into  the  next  room,  Mr. 
McElheran  with  Mrs.  Kirkbride  first. 

There  was  no  clergyman  to  bless  the  table.  McElheran 
hesitated  about  doing  so  :  he  would  have  invited  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride, but  he  knew  she  was  not  a  Catholic — the  only  Pro- 
testant, in  fact,  in  the  room.  Mr.  Froment  and  his  lady  were 
French,  and  nobody  else  could  understand  their  henedicite  ; 
so,  turning  his  eyes  round,  they  fell  on  Julia ;  the  idea,  how- 
ever, of  inviting  her  seemed  queer.  Julia  understood  at 
once  his  dilemma : 

"With  us,"  she  said,  "Mrs.  Kirkbride  blesses  the  table. 
She  knows  the  Catholic  blessing,"  and  thus  the  trouble  for 
all  was  speedily  removed. 

"Before  we  begin  our  meal,"  said  the  doctor,  as  soon  as 
they  were  seated,  "I  must  inform  everybody  present  of 
what  they  can  expect.  In  this  house,  there  can  be  nothing 
else  but  Irish  dinners,  Irish  dishes,  seasonings,  beverages,  etc. 
The  novelty,  at  least,  will  be  pleasant,  I  hope,  to  those  who 
are  not  accustomed  to  it.  And  this  is  not  only  from  choice, 
but  from  real  necessity.  When  I  left  Ireland  to  come  to 
America,  immediately  after  the  death  of  my  father,  all  the 
servants  who  were  young  people  preferred  to  remain  in  the 
old  country ;  I  paid  them  off,  and  they  found  occupations 
somewhere  else.  But  the  cook  of  the  house  was  a  respecta- 
ble, aged  Keny  woman,  by  the  name  of  Mrs.  O' Sullivan. 
She  had  been  with  us  ever  since  she  became  a  widow  after 
only  two  years  of  marriage ;  and  she  had  sworn  that  she 
would  never  go  to  any  other  house  but  that  of  the  McElhe- 
rans.     I  had,  therefore,  to  take  her  with  me,  and  bring  her 


AN  IRISH  DmNEK  415 

to  this  country.  She  has  been  so  long  nsed  to  her  ways 
that  it  would  be  not  only  ridiculous  but  absurd  in  me  to  try 
to  change  her.  You  will  not,  however,  I  hope,  be  altogether 
displeased  with  her  cooking ;  otherwise  I  would  not  have 
invited  you,  or  I  would  have  engaged  another  cook  for  the 
day,  at  the  risk  of  fearfully  raising  good  Mrs.  O'  Sullivan' s 
temper. 

At  that  moment,  a  big,  stout  Irish  waiter,  in  green,  brought 
in  an  enormous  dish  overflowing  with  all  the  richness  of  an 
Irish  stew,  by  which  all  tastes  could  be  satisfied,  since  all 
kinds  of  meat  used  in  civilized  life — lamb,  beef,  bacon, 
chicken,  etc. — were  pleasantly  mixed  up,  boiled  do^vn  to 
the  desired  point,  and  smoking,  piping  hot.  Just  as  it  came 
from  the  kitchen.  There  is  no  need  of  mentioning  the  rows 
of  potatoes  round  this  dish,  and  all  those  that  followed. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  detail  what  particular  piece  each 
one  asked  and  got ;  but  the  English  lady,  who  was  first 
served,  receiving  on  her  plate  the  wing  of  a  young  fowl,  so 
tender  that  the  flesh  came  off  from  the  bone  of  itself,  de- 
clared that  Mrs.  Froment  ought  to  have  the  other  wing  of 
the  same  chick,  to  remind  her  of  the  delicate  and  juicy  frogs 
of  her  country,  which  she  herself  once  in  her  life  had  tasted, 
in  her  first  trip  to  France  with  her  husband  ;  and  everybody 
laughed,  and  Mrs.  Froment  felt  quite  willing  to  have  the 
^'ing. 

But,  of  course,  the  stew  was  merely  to  introduce  the  roast, 
and  it  came  in  just  at  this  moment.  It  was  not  English 
beef,  our  readers  may  be  assured,  but  really  and  literally 
a  quarter  of  Irish  lamb,  just  fresh  from  the  mountains  of 
Kerry,  and,  on  this  account,  cooked  by  Mrs.  0'  Sullivan  with 
more  than  usual  care.  That  nobody  may  be  disinclined  to 
beheve  it  was  so,  it  is  well  to  state  the  particulars,  and  then 
hear  Mr.  McElheran  speaking  on  the  subject.  It  was  just 
at  the  time  the  English  Government,  seemingly  inclined  to 
render  justice  to  the  ^'sister  isle,"  had  established  a  line  of 
steamers  from  Galway.  We  know  that  it  lasted  a  month 
or  two.  The  young  doctor  availed  himself  of  the  circum- 
stance to  engage  the  steward  of  one  of  those  steamers  to 


416  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE, 

bring  liim  two  white  lambs,  dropped  three  months  before  on 
the  mountains  of  Kerry  ;  they  were  to  frisk  away  thek  lives 
on  the  grounds  of  the  doctor,  who  had  just  prepared  a  fine 
greensward  for  them,  back  of  the  house.  But,  during  the 
passage  over,  one  of  the  lambs,  frightened  by  a  sailor,  got 
one  of  its  legs  fast  in  some  ship-tackle,  and  the  bone,  as 
brittle  as  glass,  was  broken.  The  steward  thought  he  could 
set  it,  and  the  result  was  a  distorted  limb,  which  gave  the 
poor  little  thing  a  most  ludicrous  and  unnatural  appear- 
ance. "  This  is  the  plain  reason  why  we  are  now  going  to 
feast  on  this  nice  and  tender  quarter  of  lamb,"  said  the 
young  doctor,  who,  with  his  carving-knife,  was  at  the  mo- 
ment showing  his  skill  in  comparative  anatomy.  He  had 
already  placed  two  miniature  chops  on  a  plate,  and  adding 
to  them  a  juicy  slice  of  the  hind  quarter,  he  ordered  the 
waiter  to  take  the  plate  to  Miss  Rosa  McCarthy,  who,  he 
said,  ''  being  the  most  lamb-like  person  of  the  whole  party, 
has  a  right  to  be  served  the  first."  Miss  Rosa  replied  that 
the  story  had  completely  taken  away  her  appetite,  and  she 
pushed  the  plate  to  her  neighbor,  Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne, 
who,  having  stronger  nerves,  made  two  mouthfuls  of  the 
whole,  after  having  first  presented  in  exchange  to  the  young 
lady  the  tiny  body  of  an  Irish  sparrow — perhaps  one  of  the 
numerous  Twit-Twat  family — which,  with  a  dozen  others, 
lay  on  a  small  dish  before  liim. 

But,  directly  after  the  lamb,  came  the  great  feature  of 
the  day,  in  point  of  dishes,  namely,  a  huge  chicken  pie, 
crowned  with  a  bright  green  garland  of  shamrock,  whose 
seed  had  been  imported  from  Ireland.  When  Mr.  McElhe- 
ran  took  away  the  crust,  a  bright  wreath  of  smoke  rose  up, 
and,  spreading  through  the  whole  room,  perfumed  tlie  air 
so  that  the  fragrance  from  the  plants  of  the  conservatory 
was  no  more  felt,  but  in  its  place  a  luscious  blending  of 
aromatics  struck  the  olfactory  nerves  of  the  guests.  Mrs. 
0' Sullivan  had  exerted  all  her  culinary  skill  in  the  pro- 
duction of  this  masterpiece.  The  crust,  at  the  same  time 
brittle,  sweet,  and  juicy,  lined  interiorly  with  a  coating 
of  rich  paste,  contained,  if  we  may  say  so,  all  the  treasures 


AJ^  IBISH  nmNER.  417 

of  the  animal  and  vegetable  worlds  :  shallots  from  Ascalon, 
globular  and  tender  mushrooms,  product  of  a  night  on  the 
borders  of  groves  in  sweet  France,  cloves  and  cinnamon  from 
the  spicy  islands  of  the  antipodes,  formed  the  embalming 
bed  in  which  were  wrapped  up  the  limbs  of  spring  chickens 
and  doves  just  taken  from  their  nests. 

''Perhaps,"  said  Mr.  McElheran,  "people  will  laugh  at 
us  for  calling  this  an  Irish  dish,  when  everything,  except  the 
outside  decoration,  comes  from  foreign  and  distant  lands  ; 
but  the  skill  with  which  every  ingredient  is  mixed  up  is, 
beyond  question,  Irish ;  nay,  more,  only  cooks  of  the  old 
stock,  as  Mrs.  O'  Sullivan  certainly  is,  can  succeed  in  mak- 
ing a  thorough -going  chicken  pie."  And,  placing  rapidly 
on  the  plates  of  all  the  rich  contents  of  the  huge  circular 
tower  of  paste  and  crust,  that  each  one  might  receive  it 
piping  hot  and  tasty,  Mr.  McElheran  looked  around  with 
satisfaction  and  just  pride,  when  he  saw  how  his  guests 
showed  their  appreciation  of  his  Milesian  culslniere. 

Irish  "beverages"  were  in  the  "bill  of  fare,"  and  we 
could  not  yet  speak  of  this  part  of  the  programme.  We 
thought  that  a  few  words  at  the  end  would  be  sufficient,  as 
we  did  not  wish  to  shock  too  outrageously  the  feelings  of 
the  numerous  temperance  men  and  lady  "crusaders"  of 
our  age.  Before  the  guests  removed  from  the  table,  a  small 
tumbler  was  offered  to  each,  which  even  the  ladies  did  not 
dare  refuse.  As  we  were  not  of  the  party,  and  did  not  taste 
of  it,  we  cannot  say  exactly  what  the  tumblers  contained ; 
we  are  told  only  that  smoke  arose  from  the  glass,  indicating 
that  it  was  not  a  cold  "beverage  ; "  some  lemon  peel  floated 
on  the  surface,  and  each  one  stirred  the  contents  with  a 
small  silver  spoon ;  finally,  as  foolish  Devir  rose  up,  after 
having  said  nothing  during  the  whole  dinner,  he  uncon- 
sciously mumbled  the  words  "mountain  dew."  Our  read- 
ers may  form  their  conclusions  from  these  particulars ;  we 
give  them  as  they  occurred. 

Grace  having  been  devoutly  said  by  the  same  good  lady 
who  had  first  blessed  the  table,  Mr.  Devir  took  the  ladies 
out  to  visit  the  conservatory  and  the  grounds,  and  Mr. 
27 


418  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

McElheran  remained  for  a  short  time  at  table  with  his  new 
friend,  Mr.  0' Byrne,  smoking  their  cigars  and  sipping  some 
drops  of  bright-colored  liquid  out  of  very  tiny  glasses. 

"My  dear  friend,"  said  the  doctor,  "please  tell  me  what 
were  exactly  those  '  vicissitudes '  of  which  your  sister  spoke 
after  her  song.  She  said  something  to  me,  the  other  day, 
after  the  attack  of  that  villain,  Schwitz,  of  the  'vicissi- 
tudes '  of  the  Kirkbride  family,  with  which  I  was  slightly 
acquainted  before  ;  and  I  admire  the  grateful  spirit  which 
induced  her  to  remain  with  such  an  excellent  lady  reduced 
to  poverty  after  living  in  affluence  ;  but  of  her  own  '  vicissi- 
tudes '  I  know  absolutely  nothing,  and  I  would  like  to  get 
some  information  on  the  subject,  if  there  be  no  reason  for 
you  and  your  family  to  make  a  secret  of  them." 

"There  is,"  replied  O' Byrne,  "no  secret  whatever  for  us 
to  keep ;  and  for  you,  an  Irishman  like  ourselves,  a  word 
will  be  sufficient  to  acquaint  you  with  all.  My  father  and 
mother,  after  having  fought  against  want,  several  years, 
on  their  small  farm,  in  the  County  Wexford,  were  finally 
evicted  under  the  most  barbarous  circumstances.  I  was  a 
mere  boy  at  the  time,  and  Julia  was  the  angel  of  the  family ; 
what  she  suffered  interiorly  we  never  knew,  as  she  tried 
always  to  appear  cheerful ;  but  the  few  words  of  explana- 
tion she  gave  us  to-day,  after  playing,  revealed  to  me,  as 
well  as  to  you,  the  inward  storms  of  grief  she  had  then  to 
encounter.  Since  we  landed  in  this  country,  we  have  been 
pursued  by  the  unrelenting  hatred  of  low  enemies ;  tliree 
times  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  carry  Julia  away  forci- 
bly for  the  worst  purposes  ;  and  you  have  been  lier  savior 
at  the  last ;  the  death  of  her  mother,  too,  for  whom  alone 
she  appeared  to  live,  must  have  made  a  most  painful  im- 
pression on  her.  This  is,  in  general,  the  explanation  that 
can  be  given  of  the  phrase  which  puzzled  you.  The  fact  is, 
that,  as  you  know,  many  of  our  countrywomen  are  sorely 
tempted  and  tried ;  but  few  to  the  extent  of  Julia.  You 
can  understand  now,  sir,  what  she  said  of  the  development 
given  to  her  interior  feelings  by  all  she  has  passed  through." 

"I  am  extremely  thankful,  my  friend,"  said  the  young 


AN  IRISH  DmNER.  419 

doctor,  '^for  the  information  yon  have  conveyed  to  me. 
But  have  yon  not  your  old  father,  who  is  also  her  father  ? 
How  is  it  that  not  a  word  is  said  by  yon  of  him  ?  I  hope 
the  old  gentleman  is  properly  cared  for." 

"All  we  can  do  is  done  for  him,  I  assure  you,"  replied 
young  0' Byrne  ;  "but  if  you  meant  to  ask  why  Julia  does 
not  seem  to  extend  to  him  her  personal  care,  the  answer  is 
simple  and  easy  ;  our  father  would  not  consent  to  it ;  he  is 
not  too  old  to  work,  and  he  supports  himself  honoi-ably ; 
he  lives  with  an  old  friend,  whose  society  is  congenial  to 
him ;  and  he  would  have  himself  chased  away  Julia  from 
his  house,  and  forced  her  to  live  with  Mrs.  Kirkbride  out 
of  pure  gratitude  for  the  excellent  lady,  if  Julia  had  pro- 
posed to  abandon  her  and  go  back  to  him  ;  but  the  girl  was 
too  sensible  to  think  of  it,  as  she  knew  that  her  father  was 
in  want  of  nothing,  and  that  Mrs.  Kirkbride  could  scarcely 
do  without  her." 

"And  how  had  she  contracted  so  deep  an  obligation 
toward  the  lady?"  inquired  Mr.  McElheran. 

"Because,"  replied  his  young  friend,  "when  all  of  ns 
were  left  penniless  and  starving  in  the  cold  streets  of  New 
York,  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  although  English,  and  a  Protestant, 
took  us  in,  attended  personally  to  our  mother,  then  in  a 
dying  condition,  and  did  all  that  charity  could  do  to  relieve 
us  and  make  us  happy.  As  long  as  she  was  rich,  she  did 
everything  for  us  that  she  could  do.  Was  not  this  a  good 
reason  for  Julia  to  stay  with  her  when  she  became  poor, 
and  was  even  unable  to  give  wages  to  a  single  servant  V 

"I  understand  now  the  whole,"  said  Mr.  McElheran, 
"and  I  see  why  Mrs.  Kirkbride  calls  her  '  daughter.'  These 
are  proofs,  indeed,  of  a  soul  formed  in  adversity,  and  raised 
forever  above  any  ordinary  temptation  in  life.  I  thank 
you,  Mr.  O' Byrne,  and  I  admire  your  sister,  for  whom  be- 
fore I  felt  only  esteem  ;  she  is  a  true  lady,  and  is  fit  for  any 
position  in  life.  But  it  is  time  we  should  go  to  meet  our 
company;  meanwhile  this  is  to  your  sister;"  and  McEl- 
heran emptied  the  last  glass  of  liquor  he  had  just  before 
filled  to  the  brim. 


420  LOUISA  KIBEBRIDE. 

When  they  reached  the  party,  they  found  a  gay  assem- 
blage. Mrs.  Kirkbride,  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Froment  and 
little  Arthur,  were  seated  on  a  wooden  bench  placed  in 
front  of  the  greensward  back  of  the  house,  as  mentioned 
before.  Young  Devir  had  just  freed  the  white  lamb  that 
was  tied  to  a  low  picket  in  the  ground  by  a  long  silk  cord, 
and  had  placed  it  on  the  lap  of  Rosa,  who  was  seated  on  the 
border  of  the  lawn.  Rosa,  petting  the  mild  creature,  ex- 
claimed suddenly,  when  she  perceived  Mr.  O' Byrne  coming 
up  at  that  moment  with  the  young  doctor : 

^'See,  barbarous  man,  what  you  have  been  doing;  you 
have  devoured  at  a  mouthful  two  ribs  such  as  those  of  this 
innocent  animal ;  are  you  not  ashamed  of  yourself  ?" 

"Not  in  the  least,"  replied  Con  laughing,  "  or  you  ought 
to  blush  yourself.  Miss  Rosa,  for  having  devoured  a  Avhole 
Irish  sparrow  which  I  myself  put  on  your  plate." 

There  was  a  roar  from  all  present,  and  poor  Rosa  did  not 
know  whether  she  ought  to  laugh  or  be  angry. 

The  quarrel,  of  course,  could  not  be  put  an  end  to  with- 
out extraordinary  means  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Cornelius 
O' Byrne.  Taking,  therefore,  by  the  hand,  Rosa,  who  did 
not  let  the  lamb  go,  he  led  both  to  the  feet  of  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride,  and  placing  them  near  the  gentle  lady  : 

"  Madam,"  said  he,  "  here  is  one  of  your  daughters  steal- 
ing Mr.  McElheran'  s  lamb  ;  she  intends  to  carry  it  off  with 
her  when  she  goes  back  home  with  you  ;  will  you  become 
an  accomplice  in  the  theft? " 

The  lady  laughed  and  exclaimed  : 

*'I  would  willingly,  if  there  was  grass  enough  for  the 
lamb  in  our  poor  lot ;  but  the  dear  creature  would  starve, 
and  had  better  stay  where  it  is  now." 

Before  separating,  the  guests  returned  a  moment  to  the 
parlor ;  there  was  no  mention  made  of  the  harp  ;  but  Ma- 
dame Froment,  at  the  request  of  all,  seating  herself  at  the 
piano,  gave  with  rapidity  and  entrain  some  brilliant  varia- 
tions on  French  popular  airs  ;  and  when  she  had  finished 
and  was  going  to  leave  her  seat,  little  Arthur  expressed 
emphatically  his  dissatisfaction  that  the  best  "French  popu- 


AN  IRISH  DINNER.  421 

lar  air"  in  Ms  estimation  had  not  been  played  :  "Mamma," 
lie  said,  "play  Malbrouck  to  please  little  Arthur." 

All  laughed  and  called,  of  course,  for  Malbrouck,  Then 
the  lady,  keeping  the  theme  always  in  view,  and  bringing 
back  its  simple  notes  at  every  phrase,  poured  out  such  a 
flood  of  French  wit  and  humor  that  the  audience,  without 
knowing  a  word  of  the  legendary  song,  cried  out  with  laugh- 
ter :  "Hurra,  hurra,  we  shall  sjjlit  if  it  continues." 

That  evening,  McElheran,  left  alone  in  his  large  house, 
fell  into  a  brown  study.  "  She  is  the  very  one  I  wished  to 
find,"  he  said  to  himself,  "and  I  must  have  her.  But 
what  will  my  relations  say  ?  They  will  all  refuse  to  have 
any  more  intercourse  with  me,  as  they  have  threatened, 
since  the  girl  has  not  a  red  cent.  But  what  is  that  to  me  ? 
If  they  continue  any  length  of  time  as  foolish  as  that,  when 
they  know  her,  I  do  not  care  for  them.  Yet  Julia  must 
know  it  before  our  marriage.  .  .  .  Indeed  I  am  a  fool ! 
Will  she  consent  to  marry  me  %  This  is  the  question  which 
must  first  be  answered.  There  are  deep  thoughts  in  the 
mind  and  deeper  feelings  in  the  heart  of  that  girl.  Will 
she  ever  consent  to  marry  any  one  at  all  %  I  would  not 
wonder  at  even  her  brother  not  being  able  to  give  an  answer 
to  this  question.  May  God  dispose  her  to  listen  to  me,  and 
I  will  be  a  happy  man." 


CHAPTER  XXYIIL 

THE  LAST  VICTORY   OVER  A  PERSISTETTT  EVIL. 

The  tMeves'  den  in  Greene  Street  had  been  effectually 
shaken  when  John  was  mortally  wounded  at  the  time  of  the 
attempted  burglary,  and  was  finally  broken  up  by  the  reve- 
lations of  Schwitz  after  his  capture.  It  then  became  an 
affair  of  importance  to  O' Byrne  to  find  out  what  had  be- 
come of  those  of  its  inmates  who  had  not  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  police  on  either  of  those  two  occasions.  The 
reader  remembers  that  in  the  fight  with  McElheran,  George 
had  escaped  in  a  northwesterly  direction  toward  the  end  of 
Manhattan  Island.  Young  Ahern  and  his  associates  had  a 
great  deal  of  trouble,  groping  their  way  in  the  dark,  to  find 
out  the  clue  of  the  new  schemes  of  the  gang.  Mr.  Doyle 
was  finally  instrumental  in  placing  them  on  the  right  track. 
We  have  lost  sight  of  him  and  of  old  Mr.  O' Byrne  for  a 
long  time.  It  is  proper  we  should  become  acquainted  with 
their  present  mode  of  life,  if  it  is  but  for  a  moment. 

With  them  there  was  scarcely  anything  stirring  and  of 
much  importance.  Mr.  Doyle  every  morning  went  to  the 
counting-house  in  Beaver  Street,  where  he  continued  to  be 
a  faithful  porter,  and  came  back  in  the  evening  to  his  lodg- 
ings in  James  Street.  Mr.  O' Byrne  likewise,  after  spending 
the  day  in  a  wholesale  manufacturing  establishment  down 
town,  came  back  to  meet  his  friend  every  evening.  They 
both  took  their  supper,  enjoyed  their  talk  and  their  pipe, 
and,  after  having  devoutly  said  their  prayers,  went  to  bed. 

One  day  a  friend  of  both,  who  lived  in  Cherry  Street,  not 
far  from  the  foot  of  Catharine,  came  to  gossip  with  them, 

422 


THE  LAST  VICTORY  OVER  A  PERSISTENT  EVIL,        423 

and  casually  mentioned  a  new  feature  in  Water  Street,  in 
Ms  immediate  neighborhood.  One  of  the  worst  dancing 
houses  of  that  interesting  locality  had  experienced  lately  a 
sudden  transformation.  All  the  girls  had  disappeared  to 
go  no  one  knew  where  ;  and  the  establishment  had  been  in- 
teriorly rearranged  in  quite  a  different  fashion.  The  halls 
below  had  been  turned  into  gambling  hells,  and  the  rooms 
above  into  what  we  might  call  "committee  rooms."  Many 
dark  characters  previously  unknown  in  the  neighborhood, 
were  to  be  met  with  frequently  in  that  house.  Sometimes, 
they  stopped  and  gambled  for  an  hour  or  so  in  the  ' '  res- 
taurant"  below,  then  went  up  stairs.  Sometimes,  they 
proceeded  straight  up  to  the  upper  rooms,  whose  shutters 
were  always  half  closed  and  doors  guarded ;  so  that  no- 
body knew  what  was  going  on  in  the  place.  People  thought 
it  was  something  much  worse  than  when  there  was  so 
much  noise  and  music,  and  when  the  girls  danced  with  the 
sailors. 

This  conversation  was  communicated  to  Con  the  next  time 
he  went  to  see  his  father.  He  saw  in  it,  at  once,  a  new  nest 
of  sharpers  and  burglars  ;  and,  as  good  luck  would  have  it, 
he  did  not  intrust  any  ordinary  police  officer  with  the  care 
of  ferreting  out  the  secret  doings  of  the  place,  but  he 
thought  of  giving  the  job  to  his  young  friend  Ahern,  who 
had  had  nothing  to  do  for  some  time.  After  his  first  visit, 
Ahern  came  back  full  of  glee  and  good  humor  ;  all  the  in- 
mates of  the  new  house  were  the  former  Jiabitues  of  Greene 
Street ;  it  was,  as  if  the  foraier  establishment  had  been  sud- 
denly transplanted  to  Water  Street.  Bully  George,  how- 
ever, did  not  show  himself. 

After  a  few  evenings  of  a  sly  intercourse,  Ahern  learned 
to  his  surprise  that  this  new  establishment  was  secretly 
connected  with  a  number  of  small  houses,  shanties,  old 
rookeries,  situated  along  Harlem  Kiver  and  Spuyten  Duyvil 
Creek,  which  serv^ed  to  store  away  stolen  goods  ;  to  get  in- 
formation from  the  country  chiefly  of  the  arrival  in  town  of 
rich  and  green  country  people  ready  for  fleecing  ;  and  like- 
wise, it  was  hinted,  to  keep  in  durance  some  poor  unfortu- 


424  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

nate  yonng  women,  objects  of  the  passion  of  these  vil- 
lains. This  was  a  sudden  ray  of  light  for  Mr.  C.  O' Byrne. 
Several  respectable  females  had  lately  disappeared,  no  one 
knew  how  ;  and  it  was  to  one  of  those  infamous  places  that 
his  own  sister  was  going  to  be  conveyed  lately  when  he 
stopped  the  carriage  by  shooting  one  of  the  horses.  Soon 
he  learned  that  the  two  little  steamers  "  Sylvan  Bell"  and 
"Sylvan  Chimes"  furnished,  unknown  even  to  their  propri- 
etors and  crews,  easy  means  of  traveling  to  the  scoundrels, 
who  otherwise  could  not  have  kept  so  far  down  town  their 
general  place  of  meeting. 

Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  thought  the  matter  important 
enough  to  be  investigated  by  himself,  and  the  following  day, 
accompanied  by  young  Devir,  whom  he  often  met  since  the 
pleasant  day  passed  in  McElheran's  house,  and  whom  he 
chose  for  a  companion  on  account  of  his  being  perfectly 
unknown  to  all,  in  consequence  of  his  recent  arrival  from 
Europe,  he  took  a  seat  on  the  ''  Sylvan  Bell,"  and  soon  was 
on  his  way  north,  along  the  beautiful  banks  of  the  East 
River. 

He  had  thoroughly  disguised  himself,  was  dressed  as  a 
common  sailor,  and  had  his  face  set  off  with  false  musta- 
ches and  whiskers.  He  lirst  easily  remarked  the  miscella- 
neous character  of  the  passengers  on  board  ;  and  he  had  no 
doubt  from  the  outset  that  several  of  them  must  be  liahltues 
of  the  new  den  in  Water  Street.  His  suspicions  were  con- 
firmed as  soon  as  they  reached  Astoria,  above  Hell  Gate. 
Two  of  them  left  the  steamer  at  the  landing  connected  with 
Ward's  Island,  crossed  the  river  in  a  boat,  and  being 
scarcely  landed  at  the  village,  threw  themselves  into  a  skiff 
evidently  kept  there  for  them,  and  rowing  farther  along  the 
shore,  finally  landed  at  a  lonely  spot  near  an  old  shanty, 
half  concealed  behind  trees  and  shrubs.  All  this  could  be 
observed  from  the  deck  of  the  little  steamer.  Farther  on, 
the  same  happened  to  another  of  the  dark  passengers  ;  and 
when  they  reached  the  landing  of  the  "  Sylvan  Bell"  near 
Third  Avenue  bridge  in  Ilarlem,  a  few  men  took  their  seats 
with  him  and  Devir  in  a  still  smaller  steamboat  which  was 


THE  LAST  VICTORY  OVER  A  PERSISTENT  EVIL.        4Qo 

to  convey  tliem  to  High  Bridge,  where  this  line  of  traveling 
ended.  Having  arrived  at  this  last  destination,  Mr.  0' Byrne 
and  his  friend  entered  a  common-looking  little  hotel,  where 
the  other  passengers  likewise  stopped  ;  and  he  could  not 
but  be  surprised  at  seeing  three  of  them  go  straight  to  a 
man  seated  at  a  small  table,  apparently  waiting  for  them. 
This  last  one  was  nobody  else  than  George  himself,  whom 
O' Byrne  easily  recognized,  although  the  features  of  the 
man  were  much  changed  for  the  worse,  since  he  knew  him 
in  the  Kii^kbride  mansion.  His  face  was  much  harsher  and 
thinner,  and  had  the  appearance  of  a  desperado's  ;  his 
clothes  were  mean  and  soiled  ;  his  whole  person  ill-looking 
and  repulsive.  Yet  it  Avas  the  same  English  bully  so  fat 
and  sleek  when  butler  of  a  rich  family.  The  party  that 
joined  him  was  soon  engaged  with  him  in  serious  conversa- 
tion whose  purport  could  not  be  even  imagined  ;  but  the 
four  friends,  after  drinking  copiously,  lighted  cigars  and 
left,  and  0' Byrne  thought  it  would  be  imprudent  for  him 
to  follow  them.  He  had  seen  enough,  during  that  trip,  to 
know  that  he  had  not  fallen  on  a  mare's  nest,  and  scarcely 
had  he  returned  to  the  city  when  he  called  in  Ahern  and 
directed  him  to  go  the  following  day  to  the  High  Bridge 
hotel,  and  try  to  ascertain  from  a  few  honest  peojole,  living 
there,  something  more  of  the  habits  of  Mr.  George,  of  whom 
he  gave  Ahern  a  detailed  description. 

But  at  the  very  moment  he  was  in  the  act  of  talking 
with  his  young  friend,  and  instructing  him  on  his  mission, 
George  and  his  associates  were  likewise  taking  their  mea- 
sures for  quite  a  different  scheme.  After  leaving  High 
Bridge,  which  they  crossed  on  foot,  they  found  a  common 
wagon  waiting  for  them  on  the  top  of  the  hill  along  Ninth 
Avenue,  which  can  be  easily  reached  on  foot  from  the 
bridge.  Then  taking  their  direction  south  as  fast  as  their 
two  heavy  horses  could  carry  them,  they  were  soon  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  street  where  Mrs.  Kirkbride  lived  with 
her  two  "daughters."  George  and  one  of  his  associates 
here  left  the  wagon,  which  continued  its  way  to  the  city 
with  the  other  men  ;  the  two  scoundrels,  crossing  from 


426  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

Tenth  to  Eighth  Avenue,  were  soon  in  front  of  the  honse 
which  they  intended  to  explore.  They  soon  ascertained 
that  it  would  be  easy  to  enter  it  during  night-time  without 
even  awakening  the  inmates,  and  to  carry  off  whom  they 
chose.  Being  emboldened  by  the  perfect  solitude  of  the 
surroundings,  they  went  so  far  as  to  knock  at  the  door. 
Eosa  came  unsuspiciously  to  open  it ;  but,  at  the  sight  of 
those  two  villainous  faces,  she  closed  it  hastily  and  refused 
to  open  it  again  when  they  knocked  a  second  time. 

^' Don't  be  scared,  girl,"  exclaimed  George  from  the 
street ;  "we  merely  came  to  inquire  if  you  know  Mr. 
McCook  who  lives  in  the  neighborhood.- ' 

Eosa  answered  from  behind  the  door  that  she  did  not 
know  anybody  of  that  name,  and  sure  enough  there  was 
no  McCook  around  for  a  great  distance.  The  poor  girl  was 
thoroughly  frightened,  as  she  was  then  alone  in  the  house, 
and  the  two  ruffians  might  have  forced  open  the  door  and 
done  to  her  what  they  pleased.  But  they  had  iound  out 
what  they  wished  and  left  without  further  injury.  The 
face  of  George,  so  well  known  to  Eosa  formerly,  appeared 
so  different  in  his  new  garb  that  the  young  giii  did  not  re- 
cognize him  ;  only  the  voice  seemed  to  her  not  altogether 
unknown  ;  she  had  certainly  heard  it  before. 

The  day  after,  O' Byrne  took  with  him  in  a  buggy  his 
young  friend  Ahern  and  drove  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  house, 
from  which  place  Ahern  was  to  go  alone  along  Ninth  Ave- 
nue to  High  Bridge.  The  first  object  of  both  was  to  ascer- 
tain how  far  the  house  could  be  made  secure  against  a  night 
attack;  for,  with  his  usual  good  sense,  0' Byrne  felt  that 
George  would  not  leave  his  former  mistress  and  the  two 
girls  living  with  her  quiet  in  their  lonely  house.  Their 
arrival  was  timely,  as  they  found  Mrc.  Kirkbride  and  her 
female  friends  thoroughly  alarmed  by  the  report  of  Eosa, 
which  was  repeated  in  extenso  to  them. 

"You  did  not  recognize  one,  at  least,  of  your  two  visi- 
tors?" asked  0' Byrne. 

"  JSTo,"  replied  Eosa.  "  I  was  too  much  scared  ;  the  voice 
of  one  of  them,  however,  was  familiar  to  me." 


THE  LAST   VICTORY  OVER  A  PERSISTENT  EVIL.        427 

^'Do  you  not  think,"  observed  the  yonng  man,  ''that  it 
was  the  voice  of  your  former  friend  George  ?  " 

''  Good  gracious  !  "  exclaimed  the  girl,  "  you  have  said 
it,  Mr.  0' Byrne  ;  it  was  he  !  " 

Nothing  more  was  needed  to  show  the  importance  of 
taking  active  measures.  The  capture  of  George  must  be 
made,  and,  consequently,  he  must  be  allowed  to  go  on  with 
his  base  scheme.  0' Byrne  dispatched  Ahern  quick  on  his 
particular  mission,  made  him  take  a  horse,  to  go  and  re- 
turn sooner,  and  said  he  would  wait  for  him. 

Our  friend,  idle  now,  for  a  couple  of  hours  at  least,  had  a 
great  deal  to  say  to  his  sister,  but  more  yet  to  Eosa.  He 
wished  to  ascertain  her  pluck,  and  see  if  she  could  be  relied 
upon  in  a  moment  of  danger.  Profiting  by  half  an  hour  of 
private  interview,  which  a  temporary  absence  of  Julia  gave 
him,  "What  would  you  do.  Miss  McCarthy,"  he  said,  "if 
two  or  three  of  those  ruffians  came  at  night,  and  entered  the 
house?" 

"First,"  she  replied,  "I  would  try  not  to  allow  them  to 
enter  the  house." 

"That  would  be  the  safest  plan,  indeed,"  he  said  ;  "but 
how  could  you  do  this  ? " 

"You  are  a  nice  young  man,  with  your  'could,'"  she 
retorted ;  "as  we  did  not  expect  you  to-day,  we  had  already 
arranged  our  plans  for  to-night ;  for  they  may  come  as  soon 
as  that,  and  it  is  not  likely  they  will  delay  much  longer. 
See,  first,  our  barricades." 

And  the  spirited  girl  showed  him  that  all  the  exterior 
wdndows  of  the  house  had  been  tightly  nailed  and  reen- 
forced  inside  by  strong  wooden  bars  ;  the  door,  also,  was  to 
be  barricaded  at  night  with  several  strong  beams  ready 
made  and  prepared  for  the  occasion.  All  these  things  she 
had  procured,  early  in  the  morning,  from  the  neighbors  in 
the  shanties  around,  who,  without  being  asked,  eagerly 
promised  their  help,  and  said  unanimously  that  they  would 
keep  watch  every  night  until  the  coming  of  the  scoundrels. 

"You  are  a  jewel,  my  dear  Miss  McCarthy,"  exclaimed 
O' Byrne  ;  "I  see  that  my  help  is  scarcely  needed.     Happy 


428  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

will  be  the  man  whom  you  will  accept  for  your  husband  ;  he 
will  have  a  plucky  wife,  and,  what  is  better,  a  virtuous  one, 
too.  But,  believe  me,  you  ought  not  to  make  too  much  of 
a  stir  among  the  neighbors,  in  anticipation  of  the  coming  of 
the  rascals.  I  want  to  catch  that  Mr.  George ;  and  we  could 
not  catch  him  if  he  were  scared  away.  Please  let  me  direct 
the  proceedings  ;  there  will  be  no  need  of  your  appearing  ; 
and  if  a  revolver  has  to  be  used,  it  will  be  without  any  peril 
to  the  ordinary  inmates  of  the  house." 

"Do  what  you  please,  Mr.  0' Byrne,"  replied  Rosa,  who 
had  deeply  blushed  when  he  spoke  of  her  future  happy 
husband,  but  who  had  not  appeared  in  the  least  displeased 
at  the  suggestion.  It  was  a  good  omen  for  the  young  man, 
who  had  almost  made  up  his  mind  to  speak  that  day,  and 
waited  only  for  a  quieter  occasion.  On  the  present  one,  he 
contented  himself  with  taking  her  slender  hand,  pressing  it 
gently,  and  raising  it  to  his  lips. 

He  was  just  doing  this,  when  Julia  entered,  without 
knocking,  and  looked  daggers  at  him  for  being  so  bold  in 
her  absence.  '-'  I  will  not  leave  you  alone  any  more,"  she 
said,  ''since  you  are  so  naughty,  my  dear  brother." 

O' Byrne,  instead  of  answering  her,  simply  asked  E-osa 
what  she  thought  of  the  primness  of  her  friend.  ''Oh, 
Julia,"  she  said,  "is  always  strict  and  motherly  for  a  lit- 
tle girl  like  me  and  a  little  boy  like  you."  And  they  all 
laughed. 

When  Ahern  returned,  he  communicated  to  his  friend  all 
he  had  learned.  George  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  High 
Bridge  ever  since  the  day  of  the  capture  of  Schwitz.  He 
occupied  a  wretched,  rickety  frame-house,  not  far  from 
Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek,  and  was  in  constant  intercourse 
with  several  men,  who  often  came  from  the  lower  part  of 
the  city.  He  himself  had  not  been  absent  for  a  single  day 
since  he  came  to  live  there ;  but  there  was  evidently  some- 
thing brewing,  which  no  one  could  state  distinctly.  O' Byrne 
knew  enough  from  all  this,  and  he  directly  tasked  his  inge- 
nuity for  the  protection  of  his  dearest  friends  on  earth,  and 
for  the  capture,  punishment,  and  utter  dispersion  of  the 


TEE  LAST  VICTORY  OVER  A  PERSISTENT  EVIL.        429 

guilty  crew  among  wliom  George  held  such  a  distinguislied 
position. 

After  reflecting  on  all  the  circumstances,  he  concluded  as 
Rosa  did  before  him,  that  they  would  make  their  attempt 
the  ensuing  night,  and  that  at  least  four  of  them  would 
probably  come,  armed  with  revolvers,  or  at  least  with  clubs. 
There  might  even  be  eight  of  them  for  all  he  knew,  and  this 
might  bring  on  a  kind  of  pitched  battle.  He  had  to  take 
his  measures  against  the  worse  supposition.  He  directly 
dispatched  Ahern  to  headquarters  with  a  note,  calling  for 
four  young  police  officers,  whom  he  named.  They  were  to 
come  singly  to  the  house,  beginning  at  six  in  the  afternoon, 
the  last  at  seven ;  each  one  was  to  follow  a  direction  dif- 
ferent from  the  others :  the  first  one,  the  Park  ;  the  second. 
Eighth,  the  two  others.  Ninth  and  Tenth  avenues;  they 
should  bring  their  revolvers  with  them,  besides  their  clubs. 
His  messenger  havmg  been  dispatched — of  course  he  would 
himself  come  back  and  be  the  fifth — O' Byrne  set  to  prepar- 
ing the  house.  The  inmates  must  all  leave  it ;  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride  would  go  away  quietly  soon  after  dinner  to  her  friends 
on  the  Bloomingdale  Road  ;  Julia  and  Rosa  would  leave 
after  her,  each  separately,  and  meet  three  blocks  off,  at  the 
house  of  a  quiet  family  well  known  'to  them. 

All  these  had  already  left  when  Mr.  Froment  arrived  at 
five  o'clock.  0' Byrne  saw  him  privately,  and  disclosing  to 
him  the  state  of  affairs,  persuaded  him,  with  some  difficulty, 
to  take  his  family  out,  as  he  often  did  after  their  dinner, 
but  not  to  return  for  the  night.  He  could  go  to  the  house 
of  a  relative  living  down  town,  and  he  might  apply  to  police 
headquarters  early  the  following  morning  to  know  the  re- 
sult. 

All  this  was  done  admirably  well,  and  none  of  the  neigh- 
bors even  knew  that  there  had  been  any  stir  in  the  house. 
After  his  tea,  which  he  took  alone,  0' Byrne  went  to  some 
of  the  surrounding  shanties  and  spoke  to  the  young  people 
whom  Rosa  had  already  enrolled ;  told  them  to  remain 
quiet  that  night,  without,  however,  going  to  sleep,  and  to 
wait  for  the  signal  he  would  give  them,  probably  between 


430  LOUISA  EIBKBRIDE. 

one  and  two  in  tlie  morning,  perhaps  as  early  as  eleven ; 
this  signal  was  to  be  a  shrill  whistle,  repeated  thi'ee  times. 
Directly  on  hearing  it  they  all  should  leave  their  shanties, 
armed  with  strong  sticks,  surround  the  house,  and  seize 
forcibly  upon  any  one  who  might  try  to  escape. 

All  these  i)reliminary  measures  being  taken,  night  came 
slowly  on  ; — it  was  midsummer — a  single  light  was  put  up 
in  the  hall,  at  the  entrance  of  the  house,  as  was  done  every 
evening  by  the  family ;  it  was  a  kerosene  lamp ;  gas  had 
not  yet  been  introduced  in  the  house,  owing  to  the  poverty 
of  the  inmates,  who  were  satisfied  with  oil  and  candles. 

The  ruffians  were  so  sure  that  nothing  of  their  plans  was 
known  that  they  did  not  send  any  scout  to  examine  before- 
hand if  everything  was  right.  They  did  not  in  the  least 
doubt  that  at  their  arrival  they  would  find  only  three 
females  in  the  house,  whom  they  could  overpower  in  a  mo- 
ment. Hence,  although  they  took  their  revolvers  with  them, 
with  powder  and  balls,  they  did  not  load  and  prime  them, 
thinking  that  if  any  emergency  arose,  they  would  have 
time  to  do  it.  George  w^as  fully  persuaded  that  four  men 
would  be  more  than  enough ;  he  selected,  therefore,  only 
three  of  his  companions — those  whom  0' Byrne  had  seen 
in  conversation  with  him  at  the  High  Bridge  hotel. 

It  is  important,  meanwhile,  to  know  beforehand  what 
plan  of  campaign  0' Byrne  adopted  and  what  disposition 
he  made  of  his  1^.YQ  men  in  the  interior  of  the  house.  First, 
he  left  the  barricades  at  the  windows  and  the  main  door  as 
Eosa  had  arranged  them  ;  they  suited  him  admirably.  But 
he  removed  the  bars  from  the  basement  door,  leaving  only 
the  ordinary  lock  shut,  as  usual.  He  placed  near  this  en- 
trance the  strongest  of  his  men,  an  athletic  fellow,  five  feet 
ten,  with  orders  to  let  the  burglars  enter  in  any  number 
they  came,  but  to  close  the  door  after  the  last  one,  and  see 
that  none  of  them  should  escape  back  through  it.  There 
was  just  close  to  this  door  a  high  press,  behind  which  the 
man  could  hide  himself.  O' Byrne  placed  another  of  his 
men,  revolver  in  hand,  close  to  the  main  outside  door  of  the 
house,  which  was  to  remain  shut  and  barricaded  ;  he  sta- 


THE  LAST  VICTORY  OVER  A  PERSISTENT  EVIL.        431 

tioned  a  third  one  at  the  head  of  the  stairs,  near  the  apart- 
ments of  the  Froment  family,  to  prevent  any  of  the  ruffians, 
if  reduced  to  it,  from  reaching  the  roof. 

Thus  the  young  leader  remained  free  himself  with  two 
of  his  men ;  and  as  the  bedroom  of  the  two  girls  was  just 
back  of  the  kitchen  in  the  basement ;  it  Avas  there  the  ruf- 
fians would  probably  go  first.  In  this  room  Ahem,  quite  a 
young  man  still,  almost  a  boy,  was  ensconced,  with  the 
direction  to  answer  the  first  questions  of  the  scoundrels  in 
a  female's  voice  as  much  as  he  could.  Then  the  rest  was 
left  to  the  providence  of  God  and  their  strong  arms  and 
wills. 

As  could  be  easily  foreseen,  nothing  happened  until  one 
o'clock;  the  house  and  neighborhood  were  buried  in  the 
deepest  silence  and  the  quietest  solitude.  But  soon  after 
this  time,  footsteps  were  heard  coming  down  the  area;  they 
did  not  intend,  evidently,  to  try  the  main  door  ;  they  went 
straight  to  the  trap  set  for  them.  With  a  simple  skeleton 
key,  George  himself  opened  and  entered  the  room,  followed 
in  close  order  by  his  three  companions,  and  as  no  one  came 
after  this,  the  policeman  behind  the  door  concluded  there 
would  be  only  four  of  them,  yet  he  left  the  door  open 
and  did  well.  The  four  scoundrels  rushed  to  the  bedroom, 
which  they  thought  they  would  find  unclosed,  but  it  was 
not ;  George  tried  his  key,  it  would  not  do  ;  he  shook  the 
door,  which  resisted.     A  soft  voice  was  heard : 

"  Who  is  there  ? " 

'^  A  friend  in  distress,"  was  the  answer. 

*'  I  cannot  help  you,"  rejoined  the  sweet  voice. 

''You  shall,"  responded  with  fury  "  Bully"  George,  who, 
with  a  heavy  kick  and  strong  push  would  have  broken  the 
panel,  if,  at  this  moment,  there  had  not  been  a  complete 
change  of  scene.  The  first  policeman  closed  the  basement 
door,  put  his  back  to  it,  and  held  his  revolver  in  his  hand, 
primed  ;  0' Byrne  and  two  of  his  men  darted  down  the  nar- 
row staircase  and  jumped  into  the  midst  of  the  astounded 
ruffians  ;  Ahem  came  out  of  the  bedroom  in  too  strange  an 
attire  to  be  a  female.     At  the  same  moment  a  whistle  arose 


432  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE, 

tliree  times  from  the  main  door,  and  the  house  was  soon 
surrounded  with  a  troop  of  young  fellows  ready  for  the  fray. 
Mr.  O' Byrne  evidently,  like  a  good  general,  had  brought 
to  bear  on  the  threatened  spot  three  times  the  forces  that 
he  needed.  There  could  be  no  resistance  on  the  part  of 
the  rascals  ;  not  a  drop  of  blood  was  shed  ;  the  whole  crew 
were  secured,  and  tied  with  strong  ropes  procured  before- 
hand, and  without  waiting  for  the  morning,  leaving  only 
Ahern  to  take  charge  of  the  building,  Mr.  O'  Byrne  marched 
his  three  prisoners  to  Houston  Street,  where  they  spent  the 
remainder  of  the  night  in  the  station  house,  previous  to 
theu'  removal  to  the  Tombs  the  following  day. 

Whilst  these  rapid  movements  of  a  small  squad  of  the 
police  force  were  taking  place  in  the  north,  a  larger  but 
quieter  operation  was  carried  on  in  the  south.  The  chief 
of  police,  who  had  already  beforehand  become  acquainted 
from  the  reports  of  O' Byrne  with  the  dangerous  character 
of  the  house  in  Water  Street,  combined  with  the  action  of 
the  young  detective  a  descent  in  sufficient  force  on  this  vile 
establishment.  At  eleven  o'clock  of  that  night  a  whole 
company  of  men  in  blue  left  the  headquarters  in  Mulberry 
Street,  marched  in  good  order  along  that  unpoetical  and 
rather  winding  thoroughfare,  crossed  Chatham,  entered 
into  gloomy  Koosevelt,  and  backing  along  Water  Street, 
came  finally  in  view  of  the  object  of  their  attack,  which  was 
perfectly  unexpected  by  the  inmates.  They  were  all  caught 
as  in  a  net,  and  more  than  twenty  of  the  most  suspicious  of 
the  crew  were  shortly  afterward  immured  in  the  non-distant 
and  very  silent  Tombs,  to  appear  shortly  before  the  court 
and  answer  for  their  misdeeds.  We  will  merely  mention 
the  ultimate  fate  of  George,  as  we  are  in  no  way  concerned 
about  any  of  his  actual  associates.  He  was  sent  to  Sing  Sing, 
where  he  met  his  former  friend  Schwitz.  But  the  two  jail- 
birds got,  before  long,  to  hate  each  other  heartily.  The 
superintendent  of  the  establishment  had  to  i)lace  them  as 
far  apart  as  could  be  ;  and  up  to  the  day  of  this  present 
writing,  they  cannot  look  at  each  other  without  gnashing 


THE  LAST  VICTORY  OVER  A  PERSISTENT  EVIL.        433 

tlieir  teeth  and  clinching  their  fists.     We  take  leave  of  them 
forever,  sure  that  our  readers  will  be  heartily  glad  of  it. 

When  Mrs.  Kirkbride  came  back  to  her  apartments  with 
Julia  and  Kosa,  they  united  in  thanking  God  for  their 
deliverance,  and  hoped  this  would  be  the  last  time  the  rage 
of  men  would  be  directed  against  them.  The  poverty  to 
which  they  were  often  really  reduced,  would  be  welcome 
were  they  left  in  peace.  Yet,  at  times,  the  lady  found  her- 
self sorely  pinched  simply  to  meet  the  most  necessary  ex- 
pense of  her  reduced  household.  She  had  literally  nothing 
to  depend  upon  but  the  revenue  of  her  house  in  Madison 
Avenue.  This,  at  first  sight,  appeared  a  pretty  round  sum, 
and  we  will  not  deny  that  many  a  family  living  in  the  dark 
alleys  of  the  Sixth  Ward  would  have  considered  it  a  hand- 
some competence.  Yet,  for  a  person  used  all  her  life  to 
affluence  and  even  luxury,  to  pay  a  close  attention  to  the 
most  minute  details  of  expense  in  order  not  to  exceed  her 
income,  to  labor  personally  from  early  morning  till  night  to 
make  up  for  the  want  of  servants  ;  to  calculate  closely  what 
could  be  given  in  charity  to  her  poor  neighbors  ;  to  curtail 
for  this  object  the  least  superfluity  at  table,  in  the  ward- 
robe, the  larder,  and  pantry,  or,  rather,  to  dispense  alto- 
gether with  things  of  this  nature,  and  be  reduced  to  the 
most  common  fare  and  dress  ;  all  this,  and  many  other 
things  incidental  to  a  sudden  fall  from  the  top  round  of 
the  social  ladder  to  the  low  level  of  working,  scheming, 
drudging  humanity,  is  a  hard  trial  indeed  which  we  would 
not  wish  for  our  enemies  if  we  listened  to  the  promptings 
of  Christian  charity. 

Beyond  all  these  considerations,  the  lady  thought  of  the 
prospective  future  of  her  two  "daughters."  She  loved 
them  so  purely  and  ardently,  that,  had  she  a  fortune  to  dis- 
pose of  at  her  demise,  she  would  leave  it  entire  to  them. 
But  not  only  she  could  not  promise  herself  to  reward  them 
in  the  future,  she  could  not  even  give  them  a  penny  of 
what  men  call  "  wages ;  "  she  could  only  furnish  them  with 
a  share  of  her  meagre  fare  and  poor  wardrobe.  As  to  a 
maniage  i)ortion,  it  would  have  been  as  easy  to  think  of 
28 


434  LOUISA  KIRKBEIDE. 

placing  at  their  feet  tlie  revenues  of  a  dukedom.  Wlio 
would  ever  ask  tliem  for  wives,  except  forlorn,  rough,  un- 
educated mechanics  or  laborers,  with  whom  it  would  be 
their  fate  to  drudge  all  the  remainder  of  their  lives,  after 
having  experienced  the  stint  of  poverty  with  her  %  This 
appeared  cruel  on  her  part :  to  keep  them  from  bettering 
their  condition  by  gaining  a  livelihood  which  would  create 
for  them  a  purse  at  least  for  future  contingencies.  She 
had  not,  of  course,  any  idea  of  what  was  taking  place  in 
the  mind  of  McElheran  and  Cornelius.  She  had  not  even 
remarked  the  tete-d-tete  of  this  young  gentleman  with  Rosa 
in  her  kitchen,  and  thus  she  had  not  asked  of  the  girl  the 
explanation  she  expected  would  have  to  be  given.  All 
these  reflections,  which  often  presented  themselves  to  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  in  her  leisure  moments,  tormented  her  mind  more 
than  she  suffered  from  actual  want.  Her  only  resource  on 
those  occasions  was  to  raise  her  eyes  toward  heaven  and 
hope  that  God  would  provide  for  what  she  was  absolutely 
unable  to  do  herself. 


CHAPTEE  XXIX. 

A  FIEST  GLEAM   OF   SUI^SHINE. 

Such  were  the  painful  reflections  of  the  lady,  a  few  days 
after  the  last  attemjjt  of  Bully  George,  and  her  own  and 
daughters'  quick  return  to  their  lonesome  house.  She  was, 
at  the  time — during  the  latter  part  of  the  afternoon — work- 
ing at  a  dress  for  one  of  her  good  girls,  when  suddenly  a 
knock  was  heard  at  the  door,  and,  on  it  being  opened,  Mr. 
Wilson  appeared,  and  was  directly  introduced  into  the 
apai-tment  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

This  gentleman  had  not  been  idle  lately,  though  nothing 
has  been  said  of  him  for  a  long  while.  Last  time  his  name 
was  mentioned,  he  was  just  receiving  all  the  papers  of  the 
late  Ralph  S.  Kirkbride  and  of  his  son  Frederick.  There 
was  an  immense  pile  of  bundles ;  and  as  the  last  son  and 
heir  had  disposed  of  the  property  the  way  we  know,  it  was 
perfectly  useless  to  examine  them  all  in  detail.  Still,  as 
something  of  importance  might  yet  be  found  untouched  by 
the  young  spendthrift,  it  was  necessary  to  go  through  them 
all  carefully.  Two  accountants  had  been  employed  for  this 
purpose,  and  Mr.  Wilson  had  superintended  their  opera- 
tions.    He  came  to  announce  the  result  of  the  search. 

''Madam,"  he  said,  "there  is  a  gleam  of  possible  sun- 
shine, which  struck  me  quite  recently  in  looking  over  the 
papers  of  your  late  husband.  A  very  handsome  property 
may  yet  fall  to  you  ;  but  it  is  only  a  wild  chance.  Allow 
me,  however,  to  ask  of  you  if  Mr.  Kirkbride  ever  spoke,  in 
your  presence,  of  a  transaction  in  real  estate  which  he  must 
have  concluded  the  day  he  left  with  you  for  Saratoga,  pre- 
vious to  his  trip  north  in  the  Adirondacks." 

435 


436  LOUISA  KIBKBItlDE, 

*'He  did  not,  sir,"  replied  Mrs.  Kirkbride ;  ''but  as  lie 
never  in  liis  life  consulted  me  on  such  subjects,  nor  made 
me  acquainted  with  the  state  of  his  affairs,  he  might  very 
well  have  purchased  land  to  the  value  of  a  million  without 
saying  a  word  of  it  to  me.  What  did  you  find,  my  dear 
Mr.  Wilson  ?  But  if  it  be  only  a  '  wild  chance,'  to  excite  my 
appetite  and  then  leave  me  hungry,  I  would  prefer  you  to 
keep  it  to  yourself." 

Then  the  worthy  attorney  explained  the  subject  more  at 
length.  He  had  found  first,  in  the  private  account  books  of 
the  gentleman,  the  mention  of  a  disbursement  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  with  a  pencil  mark  giving  the  name 
of  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer.  We  remember  how  Mr.  Frederick  had 
stumbled  on  the  same  item,  and  what  was  the  result  of  the 
inquiry  Mr.  John  thought  proper  to  make  on  the  subject. 
Mr.  Wilson  was  not  to  be  caught  in  the  same  trap.  For  he 
knew  a  great  deal  more  than  Mr.  Frederick.  Mr.  Kirkbride 
had  consulted  him  on  this  very  purchase,  and  in  almost  ad- 
vising him  not  to  conclude  it  in  a  hurry,  he  had  expressed 
his  opinion  of  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer,  whom  he  knew  only  from 
hearsay.  The  friend  to  whom  he  had  then  referred,  had 
placed  some  obstacle  in  the  way,  he  knew  it.  He  thus  was 
fully  persuaded  that  Mr.  Kirkbride  had  gone  north  without 
concluding  the  bargain.  Hence  he  did  not  make  any  inquiry 
about  this  piece  of  property  on  his  first  glance  at  the  state 
of  the  family's  affairs,  when  the  papers  were  left  in  his 
hands.  The  reading  of  the  item  in  the  private  accounts  of 
the  gentleman  was  the  first  thing  to  startle  him,  and  to  give 
a  new  direction  to  his  thoughts.  We  remember  that  he 
employed  two  young  men  to  examine  the  large  quantity  of 
memorandums,  files  of  accounts,  receipts,  etc.,  which  came 
into  his  hands.  Young  Frederick  had  never  attemjDted  it ; 
he  did  not,  for  very  good  reasons,  wish  to  acquaint  any  one 
with  certain  family  secrets,  as  some  other  copy  of  a  certain 
codicil  might  be  found  in  those  papers.  He  had  himself 
"too  much  to  do"  to  pursue  the  full  investigation  per- 
sonally. 

The  two  young  accountants  employed  by  Mr.  Wilson 


A  FIBST  GLEAM  OF  SUNSHINE.  437 

had  been  two  months  and  more,  at  their  task,  when  one  of 
them  found  a  manuscrii)t  memorandum,  written  by  Mr. 
Kirkbride,  the  very  day  he  left  for  Saratoga.  The  docu- 
ment stated  that  "the  amount  disbursed  on  that  day — 
§100,000 — was  the  purchase  price  of  a  valuable  property  in 
Ninth  Avenue,  bought  from  Messrs.  T.  &  D.  Van  Buskirk  ; 
the  special  agent  being,  for  this  affair,  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer,  with 
whom  the  deeds  were  left  to  be  immediately  recorded." 

This  document  threw  at  once  a  flood  of  light  on  a  very 
dark  transaction ;  and  Mr.  Wilson  saw,  at  a  glance,  that 
information  could  not  be  easily  obtained  from  Mr.  Bauer. 
It  was  soon  ascertained  that  the  deed  had  not  been  re- 
corded ;  and  it  was  a  puzzling  question  to  know  how  to 
proceed  about  it.  The  Messrs.  Van  Buskirk,  with  whom 
Mr.  Wilson  was  not  personally  acquainted,  had  left  directly 
for  Europe,  after  receiving  that  large  sum  of  money  ;  and 
he  had  never  heard  of  them  afterward. 

The  first  thing  he  thought  proper  to  do  was  to  pay  a  visit 
to  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  which,  as  we  just  have  seen,  did  not  in- 
crease his  knowledge  on  the  subject.  His  next  step  was  to 
go  to  the  district  attorney's  office.  The  gentleman,  after 
hearing  the  chief  details  he  had  to  communicate,  merely 
said :  "My  partner,  sir,  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne,  is  the  proper 
person  to  direct  you  as  a  lawyer  in  the  investigation  of  the 
matter ;  if,  later  on,  a  criminal  prosecution  is  to  follow,  I 
wall  act  as  district  attorney  on  his  suit.  But  Mr.  O'Byrn^ 
is  perfectly  well  acquainted  with  the  lady,  your  client,  and 
will  take  a  deep  interest  in  it.  Please  call  on  him  in  the 
next  room." 

This  being  the  first  time  that  the  young  gentleman  ap- 
peared in  the  capacity  of  a  lawyer,  it  is  proper  to  state  the 
circumstances  of  it  with  some  detail.  It  was  the  week  pre- 
vious to  this  interview,  that  the  district  attorney  had  given 
him  a  "partnership,"  although  he  had  not  yet  finished  his 
law  studies.  Cornelius  had,  at  the  same  time,  intimated  to 
the  chief  of  police  that  he  could  not  act  as  a  detective 
much  longer,  and  to  his  great  regret,  this  last  gentleman 
had  promised  to  find  a  substitute  for  him,  in  a  month's  time. 


438  LOUISA  KIREBRLDE. 

The  European  readers  of  tins  volume — if  ever  it  comes 
into  the  hands  of  any — may  be  surprised  by  this  quick  pro- 
motion in  the  professional  hierarchy  ;  but  it  is  not  the  lirst 
example  young  America  has  furnished  of  it.  Many  other 
cases,  more  surprising  than  this,  might  be  cited,  were  there 
space  and  time.  AYith  regard  to  this  case,  however,  it  may 
be  said  that  there  was  no  imprudence  whatever  in  the  haste 
of  the  prosecuting  officer  of  the  State  of  New  York.  He 
knew  what  he  was  doing,  and  was  not  deceived  in  his  an- 
ticipations. 

Mr.  Wilson  found  Mr.  O' Byrne  engaged  in  study.  He 
had  before  him  the  best  authors  on  English  common  law, 
which  had  attracted  his  attention  from  the  first,  and  which 
his  new  partner,  the  director  of  his  studies,  had  advised 
him  to  possess  thoroughly  before  anything  else.  The  New 
York  Code  was  on  a  side  table,  and  occasionally  he  consulted 
it,  chiefly  to  see  how  modern  lawyers  have  often  found  the 
means  of  deviating  from  the  great  and  sure  legal  sources. 
As  soon  as  he  perceived  his  visitor,  he  closed  his  books, 
begged  of  Mr.  Wilson  to  be  seated,  and  asked  him,  with 
unaffected  simplicity,  what  was  his  pleasure. 

The  worthy  attorney  detailed  at  length  what  he  knew  of 
the  case  in  hand  ;  and  when  young  O' Byrne  understood 
there  was  question  of  restoring  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride  a  large 
property,  he  showed  the  interest  he  took  in  the  matter  by 
placing  his  chair  in  so  close  proximity  to  that  of  his  visitor 
that  they  could  hear  each  other  in  a  low  whisper. 

Cornelius  had  never  before  heard  of  Ernst  Bauer ;  but 
when  he  learned  that  he  bore  the  title  of  a  lawyer,  although 
he  dealt  almost  exclusively  in  the  agency  of  real  estate,  and 
that  in  the  present  case  he  had  certainly  received  from  Mr. 
Kirkbride  an  important  legal  document  which  it  was  his 
duty  to  have  placed  directly  on  record — a  duty  which  he 
had  not  yet  fulfilled  after  so  long  a  time  had  intervened — he 
could  not  but  conclude  that  they  had  to  do  with  a  sharper. 

''But  what  could  be  his  motive?"  said  Mr.  Wilson; 
"if  he  intends  to  appropriate  to  himself  a  fine  piece  of  real 
estate  purchased  by  another,  he  cannot  prove  that  he  is  the 


A  FIRST  GLEAM  OF  SUNSHINE.  439 

owner  of  it  unless  lie  forges  a  deed  in  his  own  favor,  and  in 
the  present  case  he  will  not  certainly  succeed.  Meanwhile 
he  has  to  pay  all  the  assessments,  which  must  be  heavy,  in 
order  that  the  property  may  not  be  sold  by  the  city  ;  so  that 
he  actually  bleeds  for  others,  who  will  not  thank  him  for 
his  generosity.  I  cannot  really  understand  what  the  man 
means,  and  I  thought  for  a  moment  that  a  single  conversa- 
tion might  open  his  eyes  and  induce  him  to  turn  over  the 
paper  to  me.  But  I  would  not  act  on  this  first  impression, 
before  seeing  the  gentleman  intrusted  with  the  prosecution 
of  crime,  who  referred  me  to  you,  as  a  good  judge  of  what 
ought  to  be  done  in  the  matter." 

"You  did  well,  sir,"  replied  the  young  lawyer,  "not  to 
pay  a  visit  so  soon  to  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer.  I  do  not  know 
him  ;  in  fact,  up  to  this  time  I  had  never  heard  his  name  ; 
but  I  am  sure  that  he  is  pursuing  a  deep  scheme ;  and 
therefore  you  would  not  have  thus  had  from  him  any  satisfac- 
tion. Have  you  not  remarked  that,  at  the  present  moment, 
thousands  of  men  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  we  may  say 
millions  in  the  United  States,  have  no  other  way  of  living 
but  the  pursuit  of  plans  to  transfer  the  property  of  others  to 
themselves  ;  or  at  least,  if  they  can  live  handsomely  without 
having  recourse  to  these  shifts,  they  have  no  scruples  what- 
ever to  increase  their  means  by  wholesale  plundering  when 
it  falls  in  their  way  and  can  be  done  legally  f  I  say  legally, 
sir  ;  remark  it  well ;  for  these  men  are  all  '  respecters  of 
law  ; '  and  many  sharpers  have  actually  made  legal  studies 
for  no  other  purpose  than  to  follow  out  their  greedy  and 
unjust  ends,  without  a  stain,  on  what  they  call  their  honor, 
or  at  least  without  the  possibility  of  incurring  the  punish- 
ment usually  inflicted  on  thieving. 

"The  farther  we  go,  the  more  the  number  of  such  men 
increases  ;  and  they  are  found  not  only  in  the  obscure 
walks  of  life  ;  but  even  many  occupy  high  positions  of  trust 
in  the  community,  and  fill  offices  which  formerly  insured 
the  honesty  of  those  who  held  them,  on  account  of  the  sure 
dishonor  which  falls  on  such  prevaricators.  To-day,  the 
only  disgrace  which  most  men  appear  to  fear  is  to  be  treated 


440  LOUISA  KIRKBEIBE. 

as  simpletons,  if  they  do  not  profit  by  their  positions  to  en- 
rich themselves  by  the  foulest  means,  and  transfer  to  their 
coffers  the  money  of  the  State  or  that  of  their  neighbors. 

''  To  come  to  the  case  in  point,  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  may  have 
on  several  occasions  already  succeeded  in  legally  becoming 
master  of  what  he  had  been  merely  agent ;  and  he  may 
have,  in  the  present  case,  thought  of  likewise  succeeding, 
and  thus  gradually  becoming  a  millionaire ;  for  such  is  now 
the  common  ambition.  If  forgery  be  required  for  such  an 
object,  these  men  will  not  scruple  at  it  much,  provided  the 
crime  is  so  well  contrived  that  it  cannot  be  brought  to  their 
door,  or  at  least  that  it  is  rendered  doubtful  for  a  jury. 
Thus,  Mr.  Bauer  may  be  now  in  expectation  of  giving  in 
full  security  the  last  finishing  stroke  to  his  scheme,  and  of 
being  able  to  bring  by-and-by  to  the  county  clerk  for  record 
a  legal  document,  making  him  the  owner  of  an  estate  worth 
perhaps  more  than  a  million. 

'  *  You  did  very  well,  therefore,  not  to  apply  to  him  first. 
Had  you  done  so,  I  cannot  pretend  to  say  how  you  would 
have  been  received  ;  but  there  are  parallel  cases,  where  the 
man  acting  on  the  side  of  right  received  a  bullet  in  his 
head  ;  and  the  case  being  duly  tried  before  a  jury  of  twelve 
honorable  men,  the  murderer  was  found  to  have  acted  in 
self-defense." 

Mr.  Wilson  could  not  but  fully  coincide  with  the  views 
of  the  young  lawyer,  and  only  inquired  what  measure  Mr. 
O' Byrne  thought  the  most  prudent  to  take. 

^'The  first  thing  to  be  done,"  he  said,  *' is  to  ascertain 
what  has  become  of  the  two  young  gentlemen  who  sold  the 
property  to  Mr.  Kirkbride.  You  know  some  friends  of 
theirs,  and  it  is  a  very  favorable  circumstance.  They  went 
to  Europe  ;  please  find  out  what  they  are  doing  there,  and 
when  you  know  for  certain  where  a  letter  can  reach  them, 
write  to  them  directly  to  inform  them  of  the  disappearance 
of  the  deed.  Still,  this  is  to  be  done  very  prudently.  They 
are  yet,  in  fact,  legal  owners  of  the  estate,  although  they 
have  received  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  it.  Should 
they  not  be  honest  men,  they  could  declare  that  they  have 


A  FIRST  GLEAM  OF  SUNSHINE.  44I 

not  disposed  of  it.  Mr.  Bauer  Tnight  then  write  to  them 
himself,  and  promise  them  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
more  provided  tliey  executed  a  deed  in  his  favor.  This  is 
the  most  unpleasant  aspect  of  the  affau\  Mr.  Bauer  has  in 
his  possession  the  only  paper  which  proves  that  the  owner- 
ship belongs  really  to  the  Kirkbride  family  ;  and  the  diffi- 
culty is  to  obtain  that  paper  from  him.  Your  letter,  there- 
fore, to  those  gentlemen,  must  be  full  of  reserve  and  pru- 
dence until  they  show  by  their  answer  whether  they  are 
honest  or  not.  Meanwhile,  as  I  belong  still  to  the  police 
of  New  York,  on  my  informing  the  chief  of  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  affair,  he  Tvill  easily  obtain  from  a  magistrate 
an  injunction  on  the  keeper  of  records,  to  prevent  him  from 
legalizing  the  transfer  of  the  property  to  any  other  than  to 
Mrs.  Kirkbride." 

Thus,  Mr.  0' Byrne  showed  what  progress  he  had  made, 
in  a  short  time,  not  alone  in  legal  studies,  but  likewise 
in  sound  business  management  and  prudent  circumspec- 
tion. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  soon  informed  by  some  friends  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  Yan  Busk  irks  that  they  were  at  Cairo, 
in  Egypt,  with  a  fair  prospect  of  becoming  rich  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Khedive.  Our  readers  remember,  that  when 
they  left  New  York  to  go  to  the  old  continent,  they  had 
informed  nobody  of  their  real  intention.  Some  imagined 
that  they  wished  to  establish  themselves  for  life  in  Eng- 
land or  Scotland,  as  so  many  other  Americans  do  or  try 
to  do.  They  were  yet  unmarried,  and  they  might  fall  on 
some  heiresses  in  quest  of  husbands  ;  as  people  know  that 
young  ladies,  even  of  quality,  are  fond  either  of  a  mili- 
tary dress  or  a  foreign  name.  Others  believed  that  the 
young  men  were  not  prompted  by  such  lofty  thoughts ; 
but  wanted  merely  to  spend  their  money  to  advantage,  by 
going  where  luxuries  of  every  kind  can  be  obtained  at  a  com- 
paratively small  cost.  These  imagined  that  the  two  bro- 
thers were  going  directly  to  Paris,  where  so  many  American 
young  bloods  shine,  for  a  short  time,  on  the  boulevards  or 
at  the  opera.     Finally,  men  of  a  less  lively  imagination  as- 


442  LOUISA  KLRKBRIDE. 

serted  that  the  Messrs.  Yan  Buskirks  wished  to  employ  the 
money  they  had  just  received  in  some  hicrative  specula- 
tion ;  they  were  known  to  be  shrewd  and  calculating  ;  and 
some  men  of  a  cool  mind  who,  in  their  position,  would  have 
done  the  same,  thought  that  they  wisely  preferred  the  slow 
but  sure  way  of  succeeding  in.lif e  common  to  Europe,  rather 
than  the  impetuous  and  rash  American  fashion  of  staking 
all  on  a  single  bold  stroke,  and  becoming,  at  once,  very 
rich  or  hopeless  bankrupts.  All  these  wise  interpreters 
of  others'  designs  were  T\Tong,  for  once,  and  the  young 
Van  Buskirks  did  not  intend  to  stop  in  England,  Scot- 
land, France,  or  any  other  European  state,  but  to  proceed 
straight  to  Egypt,  where  the  young  Khedive  was  known  to 
be  fond  of  Europeans,  and  was,  at  the  time,  already  adopt- 
ing the  policy  he  has  thus  far  pursued  with  some  success, 
of  introducing  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  all  the  modern  im- 
provements in  science,  art,  legislation,  etc.,  for  his  own 
advantage  and  that  of  his  surroundings,  but  not  in  the 
least  for  the  benefit  of  his  degraded  subjects.  A  few  Ameri- 
cans had  already  won  favor  with  the  Egyptian  ruler,  and 
were,  among  others,  making  of  Cairo  a  city,  in  many  re- 
spects, as  brilliant  and  corrupt  as  most  of  the  European  or 
American  great  cities. 

The  two  Van  Buskirks  wished  to  open  a  trade  with  the 
interior  of  Africa,  whereto  very  few  men  had  yet  penetrated  ; 
where  Speke,  Grant,  and  Baker  had  already  spoken  of 
going,  Livingstone  being  still  on  the  banks  of  the  Zambezi. 
When  they  reached  Cairo,  the  Khedive  received  them  with 
kindness  ;  they  were  thought  to  be  the  happy  possessors  of 
a  much  larger  sum  of  money  than  had  really  fallen  to  their 
lot ;  but  by  husbanding  their  means  with  prudence  and  a 
happy  discrimination,  they  could,  without  fear  of  discove- 
ry, encourage  the  common  delusion,  and  profit  by  the  large 
credit  it  gave  them. 

In  less  than  a  year  after  their  arrival — which  brings  us 
just  to  the  present  stage  of  our  story — they  were  firmly 
established,  and  could  consider  themselves  as  having  suc- 
ceeded.    To  them  Mr.  Wilson  wrote,  as  soon  as  he  had 


A  FIRST  GLEAM  OF  SUNSHINE,  443 

ascertained  these  facts,  and  his  letter  was  penned  in  the 
judicious  manner  suggested  by  Mr.  0' Byrne.  The  answer 
could  not  be  expected  before  three  or  four  months,  and, 
during  this  interval,  several  events  occurred  of  vital  import 
to  some  of  our  dramatis  personce^  which  deserve  to  be 
mentioned  ;  the  first  in  weight,  for  the  sequel  of  our  history, 
being  Mr.  McElheran,  whom  we  left  in  great  perplexity  as 
to  his  intended  marriage  with  Julia. 

The  chief  cause  of  his  apprehension  has  not  been  thor- 
oughly explained,  and  must  be  stated  in  full  to  show  the 
real  difficulty  in  the  way.  The  McElheran  family  had  ex- 
tensive connections  in  the  South  of  Ireland.  Few,  among 
the  people  of  the  old  race,  had  so  well  succeeded  in  saving 
from  the  universal  wreck  some  remnant  of  their  former 
wealth.  To  state  in  detail  the  causes  of  their  success  in  this 
regard  would  caiTy  us  too  far,  and  it  will  be  sufficient  to 
assert  that  they  could  not  blush  at  the  means  they  had 
taken,  and  had  never  been  guilty  of  surrendering  to  English 
oppression  a  tittle  even  of  their  national  or  religious  princi- 
ples. They  had  always  strongly  remained  Irishmen  and 
Catholics  ;  still  a  branch  of  this  numerous  sept  had  never 
fallen  under  the  load  of  oppressive  pauperism  so  well 
known  to  our  readers,  having  always  enjoyed,  not  only  a 
competency,  but  even  what,  in  Ireland,  could  be  considered 
a  wealthy  position.  The  father  of  the  young  gentleman 
whom  we  already  know  so  well  had,  at  his  death,  left  him 
a  pretty  large  estate,  not  far  from  Cork,  and  the  whole 
"clan" — we  may  call  them  so — looked  up  to  him  as  to  a 
future  most  influential  man  in  Munster,  destined  to  bring 
back  for  the  family  something  of  its  pristine  splendor.  We 
know  well  that  the  clannish  spirit  is  not  dead  among  Irish- 
men, and  always  instantly  revives  as  soon  as  some  circum- 
stance favors  its  reappearance.  But,  in  the  case  of  young 
McElheran,  when  he  became  the  head  of  the  family,  the  mat- 
ter took  directly  a  very  serious  turn.  His  numerous  relatives 
declared  that  he  must  marry  a  rich  heiress,  in  order  to  in- 
crease his  future  efficiency  by  increasing  his  wealth,  and 


444  LOUISA  KIREBBIDE. 

placing  himself  directly  among  the  most  powerful  citizens 
of  the  County  Cork. 

No  one,  certainly,  can  object  to  marrying  a  rich  heiress, 
provided  one  can  be  found  suitable  to  his  taste  ;  but  McEl- 
heran,  as  we  know,  had  queer  and  strict  notions  about  mar- 
riage, and  had  already  made  up  his  mind  to  take,  as  his 
partner  for  life,  only  a  young  woman  strongly  Irish  in  feel- 
ing, and  with  a  heart  and  soul  formed  by  the  buffetings  of 
adversity  and  a  severe  experience  of  life.  His  relatives 
could  not  understand  his  peculiarity  on  the  subject,  and 
openly  declared  that,  in  case  he  disregarded  their  views, 
they  would  all  cut  him^  have  nothing  to  do  with  his  wife, 
and,  consequently,  with  himself.  It  was  on  account  of  this 
strange  persecution  that  he  left  his  own  country,  and  came 
to  New  York.  But,  even  in  the  New  World,  they  did  not 
leave  him  quiet,  and  shortly  after  his  arrival  and  settlement 
at  Manhattanville  he  heard  with  surprise  that  there  had 
been  a  meeting  of  the  whole  family,  directly  after  he  left 
Cork,  and  all  had  agreed  about  keeping  their  eyes  upon  him. 
They  naturally  felt  indignant  that  he  had  left  his  country, 
where  they  could  not  any  more  share  in  the  consideration 
his  wealth  gave  him,  and  they  would  willingly  have  perse- 
cuted him  so  fiercely,  in  his  new  position,  as  to  oblige  him 
to  come  back.  In  the  impossibility  of  doing  so,  they  ap- 
pointed several  members  of  the  family,  who  had  emigrated 
before  him,  as  watchmen  over  his  proceedings,  chiefly  with 
respect  to  marriage,  and  soon  enough  he  understood  that, 
although  he  wished  to  keep  up,  in  America,  relations  of 
friendship  with  the  members  of  the  sept,  he  could  not  do  so 
unless  he  did  what  they  wished,  namely,  married  a  rich 
American  girl,  if  he  did  not  take  as  his  partner  some  distant 
relative  in  America.  These  proceedings  on  their  part  may 
appear  strange,  yet  they  are  easily  understood  by  any  one 
who  is  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  leanings  of  the 
race  ;  a  partial  apologist  might  And  considerations  of  a  high 
order  to  vindicate  them,  and  give  them  the  appearance,  at 
least,  of  honorable  motives  and  just  requirements  ;  we  prefer 
to  condemn  them  openly,  and  say  that  such  men  ought  to 


A  FIRST  GLEAM  OF  SUNSHINE.  445 

blusli  at  introducing  their  selfishness  in  matters  of  blood 
relationship,  and  at  changing  family  affection  into  petty 
causes  of  strife. 

McElheran,  well  informed  of  all  those  circumstances,  felt, 
personally,  very  little  disturbed  by  them.  He  was  deter- 
mined to  pursue  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  and  follow  what 
appeared  to  him  right  and  proper  with  respect  to  his  own 
prospects  in  life.  He  did  not  intend  to  surrender  so  easily 
the  principles  that  guided  him,  and  was  determined  to  make 
Julia  his  wife,  in  spite  of  what  his  relatives  might  think 
and  do.  He  would  marry  the  girl  of  his  choice,  and  leave 
to  his  relations  the  care  of  deciding  for  themselves  if  they 
would  continue  friendly  or  not ;  delighted  in  the  first  case, 
indifferent  in  the  second.  But  he  conceived  that  Julia,  if 
she  listened  to  the  proposals  he  intended  directly  to  make 
to  her,  had  a  right  to  know  what  would  be  the  consequence 
of  their  union,  and  he  did  not  for  a  moment  think  of  keep- 
ing this  a  secret  from  her.  These  were  his  intentions  when 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  go  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  house  and 
see  the  young  lady. 

He  found  her  full  of  cheerfulness  and  glee,  when  he 
reached  the  place,  as  she  had  just  seen  her  brother  the  day 
previous,  who  had  detailed  to  her  all  the  consequences  of 
the  late  raid  on  the  den  of  Water  Street,  and  the  wild  lairs 
along  the  Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek.  She  could  expect  hence- 
forth to  be  left  free  from  annoyance,  and  share  in  quiet  the 
privations  to  which  her  new  *' mother"  had  to  submit.  She 
would  continue  to  live,  indeed,  poorly,  but  really  to  enjoy 
the  intense  gratification  of  constant  intercourse  with  such 
a  sweet  lady  as  Mrs.  Kirkbride  was,  and  such  a  cheerful 
companion  as  Rosa  McCarthy.  She  received,  therefore, 
Mr.  McElheran,  with  joy  depicted  in  her  countenance  ;  but 
as  she  had  never  indulged  the  thought  that  the  gentleman 
might  consider  her  in  a  more  tender  light  than  that  of  a 
casual  and  recent  acquaintance,  she  could  not  show  on  her 
face  the  flush  and  amiable  confusion  which  appeared  on  the 
cheeks  of  Rosa  every  time  she  saw  Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne 
and  conversed  with  him.     Julia  only  felt  deeply  thankful 


446  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

for  the  immense  service  Mr.  McElheran  had  lately  rendered 
her  ;  she  ^YOuld  have  considered  herself  a  fool  if  any  other 
thought  had  presented  itself  to  her  mind. 

After  seating  themselves  and  extending  to  each  other  the 
compliments  of  the  day,  the  young  gentleman,  seeing  the 
harp  of  his  mother  in  a  corner  of  the  little  parlor,  inquired, 
■with  a  sweet  smile,  if  Miss  O' Byrne  had  "practiced"  on 
the  instrument  since  he  had  sent  it. 

''How  could  I  not?"  she  eagerly  replied.  "After  hav- 
ing remained  so  long  deprived  of  such  joy,  it  was  impossible 
for  me,  as  soon  as  the  harp  arrived,  not  to  take  it  up  ^vith 
ardor,  and  rehearse  with  glee  all  the  old  'airs'  I  used  to 
play  at  Enniscorthy  ;  and  I  have  found  time  since  to  study 
some  of  the  music  you  sent  with  it,  although  this  has  been 
a  much  harder  task.  I  had  well-nigh  forgotten  all  the  les- 
sons in  music-reading  the  good  nuns  of  the  convent  for- 
merly gave  me  ;  but  I  begin  to  be  a  student  again."  And, 
at  the  request  of  her  visitor,  she  spread  out  one  of  the 
leaves  she  had  already  studied  several  times,  and  began  a 
theme  at  once  melancholy  and  weird,  patriotic  and  tender. 
It  was  a  "  Cantata"  on  the  rock  of  Cashel,  in  which  all  the 
old  sweet  memories  of  the  holy  jolace  were  reviewed,  to  end 
in  the  fearful  description  of  its  final  ruin.  McElheran  was 
entranced  ;  he  had  heard  the  music  several  times,  as  it  was 
a  favorite  air  with  his  mother ;  but  he  had  never  felt  the 
transport  which  the  rendering  of  Julia  excited  in  his  breast. 
The  playing  of  the  girl  was  far  more  perfect,  this  time,  than 
the  first  day  she  used  the  harp  in  his  presence ;  all  the 
artistic  beauties  of  the  composition  were  rendered  with  the 
utmost  care ;  not  a  note  was  lost ;  not  a  single  expressive 
sign  was  omitted  ;  yet  the  play  of  the  fingers  was  as  free 
and  un trammeled,  as  if  Julia  had  merely  followed  her  own 
inspirations.  At  the  end,  McElhenm  could  not  contain 
himself. 

"Miss  Julia,"  he  said,  "I  know  your  history,  and  I  ad- 
mire you.  Would  you  allow  me  to  say  much  more  ;  for 
my  heart  is  now  swayed  by  an  emotion  far  superior  to 
admii^ation  alone ;  all  the  sweet  and  holy  feelings  that  can 


A  FIRST  GLEAM  OF  SUNSHINE.  447 

embalm  the  soul  of  man  have  been  for  some  time,  but  are 
chiefly  now  so  ardent  in  me,  that  I  cannot  possibly  refrain 
from  expressing  them  before  you." 

If  the  earth  had  opened  to  receive  her,  Julia  could  not 
have  been  more  surprised  and  awed.  As  soon  as  she  felt 
able  to  say  a  word:  "I  hope,  sir,"  she  exclaimed,  ^'that 
you  do  not  intend  to  take  advantage  of  a  poor  girl,  full  of 
gratitude  for  her  savior,  but  unable  to  see  between  us  the 
possibility  of  any  other  tie  but  that  of  sincere  friendship,  if 
you  are  good  enough  to  conceive  such  a  feeling  for  me. 
You  know  that  I  am  poor,  related  to  poor  and  uneducated 
people,  a  servant,  in  fact,  and  a  servant  without  wages  in 
this  house,  having  only  for  prospect  to  remain  faithful  to 
a  lady  whom  I  have  sworn  never  to  forsake.  In  such  cir- 
cumstances, what  can  be  the  object  of  your  declaration?" 

''Forgive  me.  Miss  0' Byrne,"  exclaimed  McElheran. 
*'  Evidently  you  have  not  understood  my  meaning.  I  never 
intended  to  take  Mrs.  Kirkbride  from  you  ;  if  you  are  poor, 
as  you  say,  I  am  rich  enough  for  both,  as  our  aspirations 
will  never  rise  above  my  actual  position.  Should  you  ever 
reciprocate  my  feeling,  your  family  shall  be  mine,  and, 
educated  or  not,  shall  be  in  my  eyes  respectable  and  hon- 
orable enough.  I  hope  that  now  you  see  better  what  I 
meant." 

The  sense  of  security  was  altogether  restored  to  the  heart 
of  Miss  0' Byrne  ;  but  she  could  scarcely  express  an  opinion 
in  the  midst  of  her  actual  excitement.  McElheran  saw  that 
he  ought  to  give  her  time  ;  and,  rising  to  depart,  he  merely 
said: 

"Not  a  word  of  what  I  have  said  will  I  ever  retract ;  it 
is  the  sincere  expression  of  my  inmost  thoughts ;  if  it  does 
not  altogether  displease  you,  allow  me  to  give  you  a  pledge 
of  my  sincerity  merely  by  pressing  your  hand." 

Julia  could  not  refuse  it ;  and  the  young  man,  taking  it 
to  his  lips,  said  in  parting : 

"My  happiness  shall  be  complete,  if  you  make  no  objec- 
tion  to  my  seeing  your  father  and  brother  this  very  even- 
ing.   Nobody  else  will  be  acquainted  with  our  secret," 


448  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE, 

As  Julia,  in  lier  state  of  bewilderment,  did  not  say  a 
word  in  answer,  the  young  gentleman  departed  full  of  joy  ; 
yet  he  had  found  no  opportunity  of  explaining  the  very 
probable  opposition  of  his  own  family. 

Julia,  left  alone,  could  scarcely  explain  to  herself  the 
motives  of  the  interview  which  had  just  taken  place.  In 
her  life  so  humble,  so  full  of  vicissitudes,  so  constantly 
occux)ied,  the  tender  feeling,  called  love  among  men,  could 
not  find  room.  She  never  had  had  any  time,  and  never  felt 
the  least  inclination  to  examine  who,  among  the  young  men 
she  occasionally  met,  showed  her  any  attention,  and  thus 
appeared  to  be  attracted  toward  her.  .  Her  own  heart  was 
too  full  of  deep  love  for  her  parents,  and  latterly  for  Mrs. 
Kirkbride,  to  furnish  any  vacant  room  for  another  senti- 
ment. Thus,  although  now  over  twenty,  there  had  been  in 
her  inmost  consciousness  no  awakening — we  will  not  say  of 
the  senses  ;  but  even  of  the  imagination.  When  her  sense 
of  duty  told  her  that  all  her  attention  and  care  must  be 
devoted  to  those  God  had  given  to  her  friendly  charge,  any 
other  feeling  would  have  appeared  to  her  a  kind  of  sacri- 
lege, as  an  attempt  to  divert  a  stream  of  pure  love,  coming 
from  on  high  and  directed  by  religion,  toward  lower  grounds 
and  selfish  sensuality.  This  regarded  her  owni  heart.  As  to 
those  of  others,  she  could  not  imagine  that  young  men,  look- 
ing at  her  in  her  menial  occupations,  and  never  seeing  her 
join  in  parties,  even  of  her  own  class,  could  think  of  her, 
except  as  of  a  low  slave  to  self-imposed  duty,  and  destined 
to  remain  an  old  maid,  respectably  but  obscurely  engaged  in 
taking  care  of  others.  That  a  gentleman,  chiefly  of  the 
resjjectability  of  Mr.  McElheran,  should  think  of  making 
her  his  wife,  had  never  entered  into  her  mind ;  and  now, 
even  that  she  had  heard  him  speak  so  explicitly  on  the 
subject,  she  felt  still  inclined  to  think  that  it  was  a  dream, 
a  delusion,  and  a  snare.  Consequently,  she  had  remained 
completely  passive,  not  only  under  the  unexpected  attack 
of  such  a  "declaration"  as  she  justly  called  it;  but  the 
warm  pressing  of  her  hand,  and  carrying  it  to  his  lips,  did 


A  FIB  ST  GLEAM  OF  SUNSHINE.  449 

not  awaken  in  her  any  feeling  but  that  of  surprise  and  awe. 
After  he  had  left  her,  and  she  could  reflect  on  the  whole 
affair,  the  only  thing  she  thought  she  could  do  was  to  wait 
for  the  communication  he  was  going  to  make  to  her  father 
and  brother,  determined  not  to  say  a  word  herself,  but  to 
await  events. 

Young  McElheran  did  not  delay ;  but  from  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride' s  house  he  went  directly  to  the  district  attorney's 
office,  where  he  knew  he  would  find  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne ; 
and  as  soon  as  they  found  themselves  alone,  he  aston- 
ished his  young  friend  by  relating  to  him  what  had  hap- 
pened, and  stating  his  determination  to  obtain  the  hand  of 
Julia. 

''Come  with  me,"  he  said,  "to  your  father's,  who  must 
be  now  home  from  his  work,  and  oblige  me  by  urging  on 
him  his  acceptance  of  my  suit,  as  he  scarcely  has  ever  seen 
me  before." 

Young  0' Byrne  consented,  and  on  the  way  to  James 
Street,  McElheran  acquainted  him  with  the  strange  disposi- 
tion of  his  own  relatives,  and  begged  of  him  to  communi- 
cate this  news  to  Julia. 

"Be  sure  to  insist,"  he  said,  "that  this  ought  not  to 
create  any  difficulty  ;  the  opposition  does  not  come  from 
my  father  and  mother,  who  are  now  dead,  but  from  some- 
what distant  relations  ;  it  is  the  opposition  of  a  clan,  and  we 
do  not  any  more  live  under  clanship.  I  would  certainly 
like  to  see  them  all  pleased  with  my  marriage,  but  should 
they  persist  in  their  unreasonable  project,  let  them  cut  me^ 
I  will  have  myself  to  cut  them,  and  I  make  very  little  of 
this  mutual  cutting  of  each  other." 

In  the  homely  apartment  of  old  Mr.  0' Byrne,  McElheran 
took  a  seat,  and  waited  until  Con  had  explained  to  the  old 
gentleman  the  object  of  this  visit.  "All  the  young  gentle- 
man wished  was  that  the  father  of  the  young  lady  would 
not  object  to  the  addresses  he  proposed  to  pay  her.  She 
would,  of  course,  herself  decide  in  a  case  which  concerned 
her  above  any  one  else." 
29 


450  LOUISA  EIUKBRIDE. 

The  venerable  Mr.  O' Byrne  had  just  finished  his  pipe 
when  he  was  applied  to  by  such  a  strange  proposition. 

''If  Julia  was  a  little  girl,"  he  said,  "I  would  insist  on 
imposing  myself  conditions  on  her,  and  there  are  two  which 
I  consider  all-imiDortant  and  not  on  any  account  to  be  set 
aside.  The  first  regards  the  practice  of  religion  on  the  part 
of  the  bridegroom  :  how  far,  that  is  to  say,  he  is  a  x)ractical 
Catholic ;  and  the  second  has  reference  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride, 
who  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  in  this  transaction.  Julia 
has  sworn  to  take  care  of  her,  and  she  must  be  faithful  to 
her  oath,  even  if  married.  But  I  will  not  myself  ask  any 
answer  from  the  gentleman  on  these  two  subjects,  as  I  am 
perfectly  sure  that  Julia  herself  a^oLI  attend  to  them,  and  not 
neglect  to  have  both  objects  secured,  in  case  she  consents 
to  the  match.  In  that  case,  both  you,  sir,  and  my  good 
girl,  will  have  my  blessing.  Con  here,  told  me  something 
of  you  which  pleased  me  ;  he  brought  me,  also,  from  the 
party  to  which  you  invited  him,  a  nice  little  shell  he  did 
not  scruple  to  steal  from  you.  You  had  got  it,  it  seems, 
from  some  of  the  streams  of  Kerry,  but  the  Suire  and  the 
Barrow  are  full  of  them,  and  the  sight  of  the  gray  common- 
looking  little  thing  brings  to  my  memory  a  thousand  dear 
recollections.  Here  it  is,  sir  ;  I  hope  you  will  not  oblige 
me  to  restore  Con's  theft,  seeing  it  does  so  much  good  to  an 
old  man  like  me."  And  he  showed  an  ordinary  helix  elon- 
gata^  less  than  an  inch  long  and  not  quite  half  an  inch 
broad  at  the  mouth. 

McElheran  was  delighted.  "Since  you  are  a  naturalist, 
my  dear  sir,"  he  said,  "I  will  send  you  all  the  duplicates  I 
have  of  shells  and  fossils  from  the  South  of  Ireland.  You 
shall  receive  them,  as  soon  as  a  carpenter  can  make  a  press 
which  will  just  fit  the  mantelpiece  of  your  room  ;  you  can 
have  them  all  the  time  under  your  eyes,  and  you  will  thus 
imagine  that  you  are  yet  rambling  along  the  brooks  and 
streams  of  the  County  Wexford." 

Everything  liaving  succeeded  to  his  satisfaction,  the 
young  gentleman  returned  home,  after  having  begged  again 
of  Cornelius  0' Byrne  to  let  his  sister  know  immediately 


A  FIRST  GLEAM  OF  SUNSHINE.  451 

the  fulfillment  of  his  promise  with  respect  to  this  visit, 
and  the  strange  peculiarity  of  the  unaccountable  opposition 
of  his  own  relatives.  He  intended  to  pay  a  visit  to  Miss 
Julia  in  a  few  days,  when  she  would  have  had  time  to  re- 
flect on  the  proposal,  and  be  able  to  return  an  answer,  "  on 
which,"  he  said,  "  his  future  worldly  happiness  depended 
entirely." 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

A   SHOET    CHAPTEE   ON   EELIGION,    DOMESTIC  FEELINGS, 

AND    LAW. 

'^  Julia,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  one  of  those  fine  morn- 
ings in  July,  ' '  I  have  received  an  invitation  to  assist  at  a 
*  commencement '  in  a  convent  in  Eighty -first  Street,  and  I 
am  curious  to  visit  at  least  one  of  those  establishments, 
perfectly  unknown  to  me.  It  seems  some  of  the  good  peo- 
ple of  the  shanties  around  went  to  see  '  the  mother '  lately, 
and  told  her  not  to  fail  to  invite  me.  We  will  go,  when 
Rosa  prepares  the  dinner.  It  may  bring  back  jour  cheer- 
fulness, for  you  have  appeared  very  gloomy  these  last  few 
days.  What  ails  you,  child  ?  Do  you  keep  any  secret  from 
me?" 

"Never,  madam,"  the  young  woman  answered,  ''when 
it  is  something  of  any  importance,  and  it  has  taken  a  shape. 
But  when  there  is  question  of  a  trifle,  and  the  affair  is  yet 
an  improbable  puzzle,  it  would  be  foolish  in  me  to  trouble 
you  with  the  story.  By-and-by,  you  will  know  all,  and  I 
hope  I  will  laugh  as  heartily  as  I  have  seemed  dejected 
and  sad.  Let  us  go  by  all  means  to  the  convent ;  it  will  do 
good  to  both  of  us,  I  am  sure." 

They  crossed  the  Park,  which  was  in  all  its  glory.  Hun- 
dreds of  birds,  either  rearing  their  young  in  the  bushes,  or 
flying  about  with  their  numerous  progeny,  made  the  place 
a  large  concert  garden.  The  little  wren,  they  had  seen  a 
year  or  so  before,  near  their  former  mansion,  was  not 
there,  it  is  true  ;  she  had  remained  faithful  to  her  old  quar- 
ters.    But  there  were  birds  enough  of  all  kinds,  from  the 

452 


RELIGION,  DOMESTIC  FEELINGS,  AND  LAW.  453 

stately  robin  to  the  frisky  sparrow,  to  make  the  ladies  for- 
get their  former  little  friend.  They  remarked,  particularly, 
the  sprightly  yellow  goldfinches  of  this  country,  with  their 
jet-black  heads  and  golden  wings,  and  the  rather  lazy  cat- 
birds, mewing  unperceived  under  the  thick  foliage  of  the 
dwarf  shrubs  in  the  arboretum.  Thus  thek  hearts  were 
prepared  by  music  to  enjoy  the  treat  they  were  going  to  feast 
upon,  and  in  this  frame  of  mind  they  soon  found  them- 
selves in  front  of  a  large  pile  of  brick,  unpretending  in 
its  architecture,  certainly,  but  roomy  for  all  that,  and  this 
is  the  main  point.  When  they  entered,  the  lady  was  sur- 
prised to  meet  at  once  with  so  many  children  with  their 
mothers,  in  a  place  which,  at  that  time,  was  still  in  the 
midst  of  an  almost  deserted  district. 

"We  must  spare  our  readers  details  which  they  all  know. 
Many  of  them  have  undoubtedly  visited  this  very  building, 
on  an  occasion  like  this.  Those  who  have  not,  have  seen  the 
same  repeated  so  often  in  other  convents  that  the  descrip- 
tion of  it  would  appear  to  them  almost  tame  and  stale.  But 
to  Mrs.  Kirkbride  everything  Avas  new,  unexpected,  charm- 
ing. She  had  often  been  present  at  such  "  solemnities"  as 
this  in  prim  Episcopalian  establishments.  In  the  days  of 
her  prosperity  she  patronized  many  of  them,  and  when  she 
assisted  at  any  public  exhibition  of  the  kind,  she  thought 
nothing  in  the  world  could  compare  vdt\\  such  a  disjDlay  of 
charity,  religion,  and  true  piety.  Here  the  object  was  ap- 
parently the  same  :  to  educate  poor  girls,  and  bring  them  up 
in  the  fear  and  love  of  God.  But  all  the  details  differed  ; 
and  if  what  she  saw  to-day  was  more  homely  and  simple,  it 
harmonized  better  with  the  tenderness  of  her  heart  and  the 
simplicity  of  her  disposition.  The  number,  too,  of  those  who 
were  taken  in  hand  by  the  Catholic  Church  amazed  her. 
In  Episcopalian  charitable  houses,  she  saw  often  a  dozen  or 
two  of  forlorn  pupils,  surrounded  by  a  rich  display  of  ladies 
in  silk  and  satin  ;  and,  at  every  moment,  the  beholder  was 
reminded  that  Episcopalianism  is,  after  all,  a  small  affair, 
although  certainly  dazzling  and  brilliant.  Here  you  had  a 
crowd,  even  in  a  newly  formed  house  ;  and  you  could  not 


454  LOUISA  KIRKBRIBE, 

but  remember  that  it  was  connected  with  a  Cliiirch,  univer- 
sal in  its  geographical  extension,  as  well  as  in  its  aspirations 
and  aims.  At  her  side  was  seated  a  middle-aged  lady,  a 
baby  in  her  arms,  and  two  little  girls  occupied  a  chair  near 
her.  Mrs.  Ku^kbride  felt  a  strong  desire  of  talking  with 
that  person ;  but,  of  course,  it  might  be  improper,  as  they 
were  not  acquainted,  and  she  communicated  her  thoughts 
to  Julia.  ''  Pshaw  ! "  replied  this  young  lady,  "  our  neigh- 
bor is  evidently  a  countrywoman  of  mine  ;  there  is  no  need 
of  standing  on  ceremony."  And,  taking  on  her  own  lap 
the  two  little  girls,  she  motioned  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride  to  suit 
herself  with  the  vacant  chau^,  and,  of  course,  not  to  fear  to 
talk,  as  she  would  be  surely  responded  to.  There  was  no 
need,  in  fact,  of  asking  questions,  as  the  '' mother  of  the 
baby"  began  herself,  and  inquired  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  how 
she  was  pleased  with  the  display.  There  was  soon  an  active 
conversation  going  on  between  both,  and  the  widow  lady, 
before  long,  was  astonished  to  find  that  she  was  no  stran- 
ger in  the  place,  and  the  majority  of  the  visitors  knew  her 
perfectly  well,  as  a  good  number  of  them  came  from  the 
shanties  around  her  house.  Lo  and  behold !  the  one  to 
whom  she  first  spoke  was,  in  fact,  her  nearest  neighbor  but 
one.  She  had  not  at  first  recognized  her,  on  account  of  the 
unusual  display  of  finery  on  her  person  ;  but  now  she  be- 
gan to  perceive,  with  surprise  and  pleasure,  the  faces  of 
all  those  seated  around  her  coming  out  of  their  holiday 
dresses,  and  showing  the  familiar  features  of  some  of  her 
best  friends. 

She  was  puzzled.  ''What  does  it  mean?"  she  said  to 
herself.  "I  inhabit  a  new  world  ;  God  has  brought  me,  by 
adversity,  into  the  midst  of  a  people  whom  I  only  begin  to 
know.  Where  are  the  guests  to  whom  I  gave  such  good 
dinners  in  Madison  Avenue  %  Where  is  the  world  Avhich 
was  exclusively  my  world  for  so  many  years  %  If  any  of 
them  met  me  now,  would  they  look  at  me  and  consent  to 
exchange  a  word  of  conversation  \  What  are  they  to  me 
to-day  %  They  know  my  misfortunes ;  and  they  are  so 
much  accustomed  to  regard  respectability  as  a  part  of  re- 


nELIGION,  DOMESTIC  FEELINGS,  AND  LAW.  455 

ligion,  that  their  rery  religion  has  dug  an  abyss  between 
them  and  me.  'Let  the  dead  bnry  their  dead.'  With  the 
exception  of  a  few — two  or  three,  perhaps — whom  I  am 
sorry  not  to  see  any  more,  all  the  rest  do  not  deserve  a  sin- 
gle regret  from  me.  Of  all  of  them,  Mrs.  Kingsley  alone, 
with  one  or  two  others,  would  appreciate  the  spectacle  I 
now  enjoy.  These  two  or  three  have,  all  their  life,  felt  in- 
wardly the  touch  of  holy  charity.  If  they  found  them- 
selves, on  a  sudden,  in  the  midst  of  this  moving  scene,  they 
would  conclude  at  once,  as  I  do,  that  they  had  never  yet 
looked  on  the  simple  but  entrancing  aspect  of  true  charity. 
All  the  others  would  turn  uj)  their  noses  at  it,  because  they 
cannot  have  any  real  conception  of  this  heavenly  virtue. 
And  it  is  all  the  fault  of  their  education  and  surroundings. 
For  the  intention  of  many  of  them  is  excellent,  and  in  their 
best  moments  they  follow  the  promptings  of  their  hearts. 
But  fashion  has  spoiled  them,  and  thrown  a  veil  over  their 
eyes,  so  that  they  cannot  see  that  there  is  actually  in  exist- 
ence a  great  Motlier,  whose  arms  embrace  the  whole  world, 
and  who  alone  has  the  secret  of  the  true  love  of  Christ.  I 
feel  it  now  for  the  first  time  ;  for  what  I  contemplate  is  not 
limited  to  this  day  and  this  place.  It  is  repeated  every  day 
and  everywhere,  because  the  Catholic  church  is  coextensive 
with  the  world.  Julia  was  right  when  she  told  me  one  day 
that  the  inward  religious  feelings  that  God  gave  me  cannot 
be  satisfied  with  Episcoj)alianism,  which  has  not  the  true 
sacraments  and  the  true  priesthood  to  give  unto  me.  The 
good  girl  might  have  added  that  its  sphere  is  almost  imper- 
ceptible on  the  face  of  this  earth,  whilst  that  of  the  Catholic 
church  embraces  its  whole  extent.  Episcopalianism  is,  no 
doubt,  wealthy  and  brilliant.  What  of  it,  if  the  result  of  its 
action  is  almost  nothing,  and  if  in  it  the  works  of  Chris- 
tian love  must  be  performed  by  a  jeweled  hand  and  in  a 
perfumed  atmosphere  ? 

"IIow  different  are  the  surroundings  of  the  universal 
church  which  reigns  supreme  in  this  simjjle  but  holy  house  ! 
I  see  some  few  of  these  cloistered  women  with  their  black  and 
white  dresses.     These  are  the  real  dispensers  of  true  Chris- 


456  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

tian  charity,  which  must  have  no  other  jewel  than  self- 
sacrifice,  no  other  perfume  than  jpurity.  They  are  called 
Sisters  of  Mercy,  and  that  they  are.  Are  not  these  numer- 
ous children  with  their  cotton  gowns,  as  lovely  and  beauti- 
ful as  those  of  the  rich,  covered  with  silk  and  gold  ?  Dress 
them  all  alike  ;  which  are  those  who  will  show  finer  limbs 
and  give  evidence  of  more  holy  souls  ?  Where  in  the  world 
of  fashion  will  I  find  better  girls  than  Julia  and  Eosa,  and 
more  true  gentlemen  than  that  McElheran  who  appeared 
once  among  us  and  saved  Julia  and  me  ? 

"And  the  simple  melody,  coming  from  so  many  throats 
used  to  singing  in  concert,  did  I  hear  it  before  I  came  here  ? 
and  have  my  eyes  anywhere  else  been  moistened  with  tears 
and  my  heart  embalmed  with  holy  emotions  ? " 

These  and  many  others  were  the  reflections  suggested  to 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  by  what  she  saw  and  heard  that  day  ;  and 
the  simple  conclusion  she  drew  was  this :  ''I  must  finally 
have  a  talk  with  the  clergyman  whom  I  saw  at  the  death- 
bed of  poor  Mrs.  O' Byrne.  He  will  instruct  me  ;  for  I  am 
yet  in  great  need  of  instruction  ;  and  I  am  sure  I  will  receive 
more  comfort  from  him  than  I  ever  had  from  the  good  rec- 
tor of  Trinity."  And  on  her  leaving  the  convent,  she  took 
a  turn  out  of  the  usual  way  home,  and  saw  for  a  moment 
the  gentleman  whom  she  had  mentioned  in  her  thoughts. 
He  received  her  without  surprise,  and  heard  from  her  lips 
the  statement  of  her  purpose  in  coming,  without  showing 
any  sign  of  satisfied  astonishment.  "I  expected  it,"  he 
merely  said  ;  "I  knew  that  the  prayers  of  that  excellent 
Mrs.  O' Byrne,  now  in  heaven,  would  bring  you  to  the  bosom 
of  the  true  church.  You  must  now,  madam,  be  fully  per- 
suaded that  if,  when  Protestantism  first  arose,  the  Catholic 
Church  had  been  as  corrupt  as  her  enemies  pretended,  she 
would  have  melted  away  all  at  once,  and  nothing,  at  this 
moment,  would  remain  of  her.  You  see,  on  the  contrary, 
that  she  is  still  as  active,  as  successful,  and  as  pure  as 
becometh  the  true  Bride  of  Christ." 

'*  Of  this,"  interposed  the  lady,  '^  I  have  never  had  any 
doubt ;  for  I  belonged  to  a  branch  of  the  Anglican  Church 


RELIGION,  DOMESTIC  FEELINGS,  AND  LAW.  457 

which  did  not  wish  to  repudiate  the  Catholic  stem.  We 
called  ourselves  Catholics,  you  know,"  she  added,  smiling. 

^'I  am  aware  of  it,  madam,"  replied  the  old  clergyman. 
*'But  in  adopting  that  name,  your  branch  of  Catholicity 
accused  the  Church  of  great  shortcomings  when  the  so- 
called  Reformation  took  place.  And  you  will  soon  be  per- 
suaded that  it  was  not  so.  But  your  object,  I  am  sure,  is 
not  to  unravel  the  mazes  of  long-forgotten  controversies. 
You  spoke  yourself  of  instruction  ;  and  to  instruction  I 
shall  confine  myself.  My  only  object  in  speaking  as  I  did, 
was  to  insinuate  to  you  that  you  have,  at  this  moment,  the 
happiness  of  asking  admittance  into  the  intimate  circle, 
unceasingly  surrounding  the  true  Bride  of  Christ.  Into  her 
holy  company  you  will  soon  be  introduced  ;  and  to  make 
your  happiness  loerfect,  you  must  be  at  once  fully  iDer- 
suaded  that  she  has  always  been  the  only  Bride  of  the 
Saviour ;  all  pure,  spotless,  and  having  on  her  lips  the 
words  of  truth.  Whoever  says  the  contrary,  is  not,  'in 
the  truth,'  as  St.  John  has  it.  Love  her  ardently  from 
this  very  moment ;  and  your  love  shall  never  be  disap- 
pointed." 

To  begin,  he  handed  over  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride  a  Catholic 
catechism  rather  larger  than  usual,  and  the  Life  of  Christy 
by  a  French  author  (Be  Ligny),  translated  into  English. 
He  directed  her  what  prayers  to  say  morning  and  night ; 
and  made  her  adopt  a  strict  line  of  conduct  for  the  employ- 
ment of  her  time. 

During  the  absence  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  and  Julia,  Mr.  Cor- 
nelius O' Byrne  called  at  the  house;  he  had  something  of 
importance  to  communicate  to  his  sister.  Kosa  was  alone 
in  the  kitchen  with  little  Arthur.  This  young  gentleman 
had  taken  a  great  fancy  to  her.  His  mother  often  allowed 
him  to  go  do^Ti,  and  he  was  useful  in  more  than  one  way  ; 
he  was  often  employed  shelling  peas  or  paring  the  apples 
for  dumplings  ;  and  we  know  already  that  the  little  rogue 
was  very  fond  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride' s  apples.  Mr.  0' Byrne, 
unwilling  to  stay  alone  in  the  parlor,  or  to  take  the  time  of 
Miss  McCarthy,  when  she  had  so  much  to  do,  went  down 


458  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

likewise,  and  began  talking  wifch  little  Arthur,  who  climbed 
on  his  knees.  ' '  Whom  do  you  like  best, ' '  inquired  0'  Byrne ; 
''  E-osa  here  or  your  mamma  above  ? " 

''When  I  am  here,"  replied  Arthur,  "IlikeEosa  best, 
and  when  I  am  home,  mamma." 

"  So  your  heart  is  already  divided,  my  little  friend,"  ob- 
served Con,  "and  your  affections  are  as  changeable  as  the 
rooms  you  are  in." 

It  is  doubtful  if  Arthur  understood  this  remark  ;  but  he 
showed  that  he  was  not  a  fool  by  saying :  ' '  Mamma  is 
always  Avith  me  when  I  am  not  here,  and  I  love  her  when- 
ever I  am  with  her ;  she  does  not  forbid  me  to  love  Rosa 
when  I  come  down." 

"I  see,"  said  O'Byrne,  "you  love  those  with  whom  you 
are — and  it  w^ould  be  a  good  rule  for  all  people,  after  all — 
you  understand.  Miss  McCarthy,  what  the  little  fellow  says  ; 
and  if  this  is  also  your  disposition,  you  must  love  me  very 
little,  since  I  come  to  see  you  so  seldom,  and  you  never 
come  to  see  me.  I  am  myself  somewhat  differently  consti- 
tuted ;  and  I  often  ardently  love  those  I  do  not  see,  because 
I  think  of  them.  Do  you  never  think  of  me  when  I  am 
absent,  Miss  Eosa?" 

Rosa  blushed,  and  said  with  an  arch  smile  :  "If  you  were 
my  confessor,  Mr.  O'Byrne,  I  would  answer  your  question, 
because  it  might  be  a  sin  to  think  often  of  a  nice  young 
man  like  you ;  but  I  can  candidly  state  to  you  that  I  am 
so  far  of  the  opinion  of  little  Arthur,  as  to  be  very  well 
pleased  when  I  see  you  ;  and  in  this  sense  I  will  say  that  I 
love  you  whenever  you  come  to  see  us." 

"  But  I  will  require  a  little  more  of  you,  my  dear  Rosa," 
said  O'Byrne,  "and  oblige  you  to  love  me  in  a  sense  some- 
what different,  although  as  innocent  certainly.  I  will  want 
you  to  think  of  me  when  I  am  not  with  you,  and  to  help 
you  to  it " — he  said  in  her  ear :  "  send  the  boy  to  his  mother 
for  a  moment."  And  as  soon  as  Arthur  had  gone,  Con 
took  from  his  pocket  a  small  box,  which  he  opened,  and 
showed  her  a  beautiful  lady's  watch  and  chain,  and  a  taste- 
ful ring,  with  a  small  diamond.    "To-day,"  he  said,  " I  am 


BELIGION,  DOMESTIC  FEELINGS,  AND  LAW.  459 

stingy,  and  will  allow  yon  to  take  only  one  of  these  ;  have 
the  goodness  to  choose,  and  let  me  see  what  pleases  you  best." 

Eosa,  surprised  as  well  as  delighted,  did  not  hesitate  a 
moment ;  but  taking  the  ring,  she  placed  it  on  her  finger, 
which  it  fitted  admirably.  "  Did  you  take  the  measure  of 
it  ?  "  she  asked. 

"Yes,"  he  replied,  "and  of  the  chain  also."  And  say- 
ing this,  he  put  around  her  neck  the  chain  and  watch, 
throwing,  at  the  same  time,  the  pasteboard  box  into  the 
fire  of  the  range,  which  blazed  ux)  fiercely. 

"Oh,  my  stew,"  Rosa  exclaimed,  "it  will  be  spoiled; 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  will  scold  me." 

"And  to  pacify  her,  you  will  kiss  her,  you  little  rogue, 
and  you  do  not  even  thank  me." 

Whether  Rosa  paid  attention  to  this  remark  of  Mr. 
0' Byrne,  we  cannot  say  precisely,  but  we  are  inclined  to 
think  she  did  not ;  for  at  that  moment,  the  door  of  the 
kitchen  opened,  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride  with  Julia  entered  the 
room.  The  lady  wanted  to  see  first,  on  coming,  how  far  the 
dinner  was  ready. 

Let  our  readers  ponder  over  this  tableau :  a  stew  on  the 
range  spoiled  past  redemption ;  the  cook,  red  with  shame 
and  unable  to  utter  a  word ;  around  her  neck  over  her 
kitchen  neglige^  a  splendid  gold  watch  and  chain,  and  worse 
than  all,  a  beautiful  diamond  ring  on  one  of  her  fingers  ;  all 
this  the  work  of  Mephistopheles  O' Byrne,  who  was  in  a 
corner  of  the  room  bursting  with  laughter. 

Julia  understood  at  once  the  situation ;  and  as  she  had 
previously  asserted  that  nothing  would  please  her  more, 
she  was  of  course  delighted.  But  all  this  was  a  puzzle  to 
poor  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  to  whom  an  explanation  was  due; 
but  when  Julia  took  her  apart  and  told  her  that  her  brother 
Cornelius  intended  to  marry  Rosa,  she  laughed  outright, 
and  said :  ' '  Who  would  have  thought  it  ?  The  girl  certainly 
could  not  find  a  better  man ;  and  I  myself  intend  to  give 
her  a  portion  on  her  wedding  day,  happy  if  I  can  find  it ; 
but,  unfortunately,  there  is  not  much  probability  of  it." 

After  this  aparte  conversation,  she  ran  to  Rosa,  who  was 


460  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

yet  bewildered  in  the  midst  of  her  saucepans  and  kitchen 
utensils,  and  telling  her  with  a  smile  that  Julia  would  re- 
pair the  disorder  of  the  range,  and  that  she  might  go  to  her 
room,  and  put  aside  those  fine  things  for  a  better  day,  she 
herself  left  the  scene  for  her  own  apartment. 

Dinner  was  soon  ready  ;  instead  of  the  stew,  Julia  had 
improvised  a  dish  of  her  own  fashion — cold  meat  chopped 
fine  and  fried  with  onions  and  potatoes.  The  lady  sent  a 
word  to  Mr.  O' Byrne,  begging  him  to  stay  and  take  his 
share  of  pot  luck.  He  did  stay,  and  found  his  cover  pre- 
pared in  front  of  the  lady — the  place  of  honor,  if  you 
please.  All  were  in  great  glee,  except  poor  Rosa,  who  had 
to  wait  on  the  party,  and  made  many  laughable  mistakes. 
When  told  by  her  mistress  to  take  the  first  plate  of  soup  to 
Mr.  0' Byrne,  she  received  it  from  her  hand,  and  placed  it 
back  before  her,  as  if  she  was  the  first  to  be  served.  A^Tien 
the  young  man  himself  called  for  water  and  presented  to 
her  his  empty  tumbler,  she  brought  a  pitcher  of  ale  that 
was  on  a  side-table,  lest  he  might  want  something  more  sub- 
stantial than  water.  Poor  distressed  Miss  McCarthy  was  a 
happy  girl  when,  finally,  dinner  was  over,  and  she  had  only 
to  clean  the  dishes. 

Before  leaving  the  house  Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne  took  his 
sister  apart  and  related  to  her  the  conversation  he  had  lately 
had  with  McElheran.  Both  his  father  and  himself  were 
delighted  with  the  match,  but  what  answer  will  she  herself 
give  to  the  proposal  ?  Julia  replied  first  that  she  had  never 
yet  thought  of  marriage,  and  this  required  serious  reflec- 
tion ;  she  would,  however,  say  that  of  all  the  young  men 
she  had  ever  known,  Mr.  McElheran  had  made  the  deepest 
impression  on  her ;  she  found  nothing  to  object  to  in  his 
person,  and  as  he  had  protested  that  he  did  not  intend  to 
separate  her  from  Mrs.  Kkkbride,  who  should  continue  to 
be  "her  mother,"  she  certainly  felt  disposed  to  consent, 
particularly  as  her  father  and  brother  liked  it.  She  only 
was  puzzled  to  know  how  Mr.  McElheran  had  thought  of 
her. 

Then  the  happy  brother  told  her  the  qualities  which  in 


RELIGION,  DOMESTIC  FEELINGS,  AND  LAW.  461 

her  had  attracted  Mr.  McElheran'  s  attention,  and  how  she 
was  the  first  person  he  had  met  with  who  satisfied  his  chief 
aspirations.  But  he  did  not  conceal  from  her  the  stern 
opposition  which  might  be  expected  from  all  the  relatives 
of  the  young  gentleman.  In  all  probability,  their  marriage 
would  be  the  cause  of  an  alienation  which  would  last  a  long 
time,  if  not  forever. 

''In  such  a  case,"  exclaimed  Julia,  "  how  can  Mr.  McEl- 
heran hope  to  be  happy  with  me  ?  He  would  by  the  mar- 
riage lose  all  intercourse  with  his  numerous  friends,  and 
would,  on  our  side,  find  only  you.  Con,  and  our  poor  old 
father.  I  really  cannot  consent  to  place  him  in  such  a  false 
position.  Please  tell  him.  Con,  that  I  will  give  my  full  con- 
sent to  the  match  when  he  has  obtained  from  them  a  change 
of  determination.  Xever  before."  And  in  spite  of  all  her 
brother  could  say,  she  continued  firm  in  her  resolve,  and 
declared  she  could  not,  for  his  own  sake,  act  differently ; 
and  it  would  be  for  her  a  very  humiliating  position  as  a 
wife  to  bear  constantly  in  her  mind  the  thought  that  she 
had  brought  division  in  the  family. 

Young  0' Byrne  had  to  take  this  answer  to  his  friend,  who 
appeared  thoroughly  dejected  at  the  news.  He  did  not  see 
the  possibility  of  his  relatives  changing  their  mind,  as  there 
was  no  reason  for  expecting  that  Julia  would  ever  be  rich. 
He  did  not,  however,  give  up  all  hope  of  bringing  the  young 
girl  to  a  different  determination.  His  love  for  her  was  too 
deep  to  give  way  so  soon  and  be  succeeded  by  another 
love.     He  would  rather  never  maiTy. 

The  chief  of  police,  after  hearing  all  the  details  commu- 
nicated to  him  by  Cornelius  O' Byrne  with  respect  to  the 
dark  schemes  naturally  attributed  to  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  in 
his  dealings  with  the  projoerty  of  the  late  Mr.  Kirkbride,  was 
first  of  opinion  to  place  the  affair  in  the  hands  of  the  dis- 
trict attorney,  and  to  begin  directly  a  criminal  prosecution 
against  the  unfaithful  agent.  But  Mr.  0' Byrne  objecting 
to  this,  and  promising  him  shortly  a  full  statement  of  his 
reasons  to  the  contrary,  he  finally  consented  to  content  him- 


462  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

self  temporarily  with  an  injunction  served  on  the  keeper  of 
records,  preventing  him  from  registering  any  deed,  which 
would  convey  the  x>roperty  of  the  Yan  BuskMvs  to  any- 
body but  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  This  measure  once  taken,  Mr. 
Wilson  could  wait  without  fear  for  the  answer  he  was  to  re- 
ceive from  Cairo  in  Egypt. 

A  few  days  later  on,  Cornelius  sent  word  to  his  chief  that 
he  was  ready  for  the  proposed  interview. 

"I  have  been  at  pains,"  he  said,  '*  to  ascertain  the  posi- 
tion of  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  in  the  world  of  Wall  Street,  and  I 
see  that  he  is  considered  as  a  shrewd  man,  but  that  nothing 
can  be  said  against  his  integrity  ;  and  shrewdness  is  not  a 
fault — far  from  it — in  the  opinion  of  people  in  our  day.  He 
knows  law  thoroughly  ;  and  is  one  of  a  numerous  class  of 
men  who  would  use  their  knowledge  of  it  for  the  perpetra- 
tion of  many  things  which  are  real  crimes  against  society, 
provided  they  could  shelter  themselves  behind  some  legal 
quibble,  and  thus  hope  to  prove  their  innocence.  People 
say  that  he  is  rapidly  growing  rich,  nobody  knows  precisely 
how  ;  for  he  came  to  New  York,  not  long  ago,  without  capi- 
tal, is  never  intrusted  with  any  legal  case  that  brings  money 
to  a  lawyer,  and  must  make  his  profits  out  of  his  agency 
cases.  But  he  is  so  well  acquainted  with  the  letter  of  the 
statutes  that  it  would  require  a  skillful  legist,  indeed,  to 
convict  him  of  prevarication,  even  when  it  is  clear  that  he 
must  be  prevaricating." 

''The  district  attorney,"  interposed  here  the  chief  of  po- 
lice, ''is  a  deep  Jurisconsult,  and  he  knows  the  statutes  as 
well,  at  least,  as  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer.  It  seems  to  me  that  he 
could  easily  have  him  convicted,  if  he  is  in  the  least  guilty 
of  fraud." 

"Not  so  easily  as  you  imagine,  sir,"  replied  the  young 
lawyer.  "For  the  simple  reason  that  the  letter  of  the  law 
is  a  mere  text,  susceptible  often  of  various  interpretations  ; 
and  a  skillful  rogue  can  often  find  one  favorable  to  his 
cause.  You  see,  sir,  that,  unfortunately,  law  and  morality 
have  been  long  ago  separated  as  two  distinct  fields.  It  is, 
indeed,  supposed  that  the  legislator  has  consulted  the  moral 


RELIGION,  DOMESTIC  FEELINGS,  AND  LAW.  463 

law  in  enacting  his  decrees  ;  but,  in  interpreting  them,  the 
precise  letter  is  supposed  to  suffice,  and  morality  must  be 
discarded  as  wanting  in  precision  and  incapable  of  giving  a 
safe  basis  to  a  judgment.  The  fact  is,  that  the  human 
lawgiver,  as  well  as  the  human  judge,  feel  secretly  their 
shortcomings  as  to  the  declaration  of  what  is  binding  in 
conscience  ;  they  instinctively  know  that  conscience  is  above 
their  province,  although  the  power  itself  of  the  lawgiver 
comes  from  on  high  ;  and  thus  they  must  fall  back  on  a 
dead  text,  which  may  be  fairly  quoted  in  favor  of  right, 
but  can  also  be  interpreted  against  it ;  and  thus,  by  throw- 
ing dust  in  the  eyes  of  all,  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  has  as  much 
chance  of  being  acquitted  as  the  district  attorney,  with 
justice  on  his  side,  can  presume  to  hope  for  convicting 
him.  I  am  sure  that,  with  all  the  circumstantial  evidence 
we  can  bring  in  proof  of  his  guilt,  he  will  be  able  to  show 
his  perfect  innocence ;  and  retaliate  on  us  afterward,  per- 
haps, and  sue  us  for  damages,  on  account  of  an  unjust 
prosecution.  This  will  be  probably  the  result  of  hasty 
proceedings ;  with  a  little  patience,  we  may  be  able  to  at- 
tack him  with  a  better  hope  of  success.  Why,  sir,  at  this 
moment,  we  cannot  prove  conclusively  that  he  has  ever 
received  the  deed,  which  we  know  he  keeps  in  his  posses- 
sion unrecorded,  and,  therefore,  of  no  legal  value,  for  secret 
purposes  of  his  own.  When  the  letters  we  expect  from 
Cairo  arrive,  we  will  have  better  ground  to  act  against  him ; 
and,  with  the  injunction  we  have  obtained,  can  afford  to 
wait  patiently,  as  no  harm  can  come  from  delay." 

''  Very  well,  Mr.  0' Byrne,"  said  the  chief  of  police  ;  "  do 
what  you  think  proper  on  the  subject.  You  will  always 
find  me  ready,  when  the  time  comes." 

Thus  the  reader  sees  that  law  is  rather  a  slippery  business  ; 
that  it  is  not  enough  to  have  right  on  your  side ;  you  must 
also  have  strong  proofs  of  it ;  and,  with  a  cunning  adver- 
sary, you  are  not,  even  in  this  last  case,  proof  against  de- 
feat and  loss. 


CHAPTEH  XXXI. 

PHOTOGEAPHS   OF  ERNST  BAUER  AND  DR.  McELHEEAN. 
TWO   FIGURES   VERY   UNLIKE. 

Since  the  time  of  the  imprudent  attack  of  John  with  his 
revolver,  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  had  grown  more  and  more  confi- 
dent that  he  would  ultimately  get  into  the  lawful  posses- 
sion of  an  immensely  valuable  estate  in  the  upper  part  of 
the  island.  This  gentleman  was  not  precisely  the  immacu- 
late agent  he  pretended  to  be.  It  is  an  honorable  and  a 
useful  profession,  that  of  a  man  who  takes  charge  of  a  large 
estate  in  place  and  lieu  of  the  owner,  because  he  is  compe- 
tent to  do  so  in  point  of  legal  knowledge  and  skillful  indus- 
try. Not  only  the  proprietor  is  relieved  from  great  trouble, 
but  the  business  is  done  better  and  at  a  far  smaller  risk ; 
and  all  this  is  certainly  worthy  of  its  reward.  But  when 
the  agent  is  a  knave,  the  agency  becomes  often  a  meatis  of 
defrauding  the  owner  of  his  property,  and  this  is  what 
must  be  called  downright  stealing. 

Now,  the  words  of  John  on  the  occasion  alluded  to  had 
persuaded  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  that  aU  the  proof  which  could 
be  brought  of  his  having  in  his  possession  a  most  valuable 
deed  belonging  to  another,  consisted  either  in  a  simple  me- 
morandum^ found  in  the  papers  of  the  late  Mr.  Kirkbride, 
stating  his  disbursement  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
on  the  day  of  the  transaction ;  or,  better  still,  a  simple 
knowledge  from  memory,  or  vague  rumor  to  the  same  effect. 
The  purchaser  of  the  property  had  left  New  York  so  sud- 
denly and  so  soon  after  the  signature  of  the  deed,  and  was 
so  firmly  convinced  that  the  document  had  been  recorded, 

4G4 


TWO  FIGURES   VERT  UNLIKE.  465 

that,  at  the  same  time  that  he  had  not  then  any  leisure  for 
taking  the  proper  measures,  he  did  not,  in  fact,  see  the 
necessity  of  it,  for  securing  to  his  heirs  this  property  in 
case  of  his  death.  In  his  estimation,  even  should  he  die, 
the  record  was  there  to  pass  it  to  his  son.  Yet  that  very 
son,  after  the  demise  of  the  father,  had  no  other  legal  means 
of  coming  into  the  possession  of  his  right  than  to  send  his 
valet  to  Bauer  threatening  him  with  a  bullet  to  bring  him  to 
sense.  Bauer,  therefore,  had  done  right  to  keep  the  deed 
to  himself.  He  could,  if  it  became  necessary,  change  in 
the  document  the  name  of  Mr.  Kirkbride  into  his  own,  and 
thus  do  away  with  the  greatest  difficulty.  Yet  this  might 
bring  him  into  the  meshes  of  the  law,  and  he  could  wait  a 
little  longer  to  take  this  step. 

At  the  death  of  young  Kirkbride,  he  had  taken  pains 
to  ascertain  w^hat  disposition  was  made  of  the  property 
and  reversible  rights  the  young  man  left  after  him.  He 
then  learned  that  everything  went  to  the  widowed  mother, 
who  had  chosen  for  her  attorney  a  Mr.  W.  Wilson,  well 
known  in  New  York  for  steady  habits,  integrity  of  charac- 
ter, and  unimpeachable  morality.  Mr.  Bauer  could  not  im- 
agine that  Mr.  Wilson  would  ever  find  anything  more  pre- 
cise than  the  son  had  previously  found  in  the  papers  of  the 
elder  Kirkbride.  Thus  he  was  sure  that  if  the  worthy  attor- 
ney might  have  some  suspicion  of  the  affair — chiefly  as  he 
knew  that  Mr.  Ralph  Kirkbride  had  an  interview  with  him 
previous  to  the  transaction ;  still,  it  could  not  possibly 
amount  to  anything  more  than  a  suspicion ;  and  he  was 
confirmed  in  this  belief  by  the  absolute  silence  of  Mr.  Wil- 
son, who,  after  several  months,  had  neither  written  to  him 
nor  asked  of  him  an  interview.  Mr.  Bauer's  hopes,  conse- 
quently, grew  brighter,  and  he  flattered  himself  that  the 
good  luck  which  had,  several  years  previous,  brought  him 
a  piece  of  property  worth  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  would 
this  time  bring  him,  perhaps,  more  than  a  million.  It  was, 
in  fact,  a  lucky  chance  which  first  induced  him  to  make  a 
system  of  what  will  appear,  to  many  people,  a  ridiculous 
imagination. 
30 


466  LOUISA  KIEKBRLDE. 

Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  had  not  been  six  months  in  New  York, 
where  he  established  himself  from  the  interior  of  the  State, 
when  his  services  were  required  by  an  old  gentleman,  just 
on  the  eve  of  a  trip  to  Europe.  There  was  then  question  of 
a  small  property  in  real  estate  for  which  the  gentleman  had 
paid  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  He  left  the  deed  with  Mr. 
Bauer  as  his  agent,  in  order  to  have  it  recorded,  and  sailed 
the  same  evening  in  one  of  the  steamers,  which  was  lost  in 
that  very  voyage  without  any  news  of  the  circumstances 
ever  reaching  this  country.  The  old  gentleman  had  no 
family,  scarcely  any  friend ;  Mr.  E.  Bauer  by  chance  had 
not  yet  given  in  the  deed  to  be  recorded,  when  the  loss  of 
the  vessel,  first  feared  and  suspected,  was  finally  admitted 
by  all.  The  deed  was  recorded  later,  but  with  the  name  of 
Mr.  E.  Bauer  beautifully  'v\Titten  in  the  place  and  in  lieu  of 
that  of  the  old  gentleman. 

The  lucky  rascal  concluded  it  would  be  easy,  in  such  a 
city  as  New  York,  to  find  other  cases  of  this  Idnd  :  some 
old  man,  just  at  the  moment  of  starting  for  a  distant 
country,  chiefly  if  sick  and  threatened  with  death,  with  few 
relatives  and  these  kept  at  a  distance,  might  as  easily  make 
him  heir  to  hundreds  of  thousands  as  to  fifteen,  and  a  sys- 
tem was  adopted  by  him  which  we  have  seen  carried  out  in 
the  case  of  Mr.  Kirkbride.  But,  when  almost  all  circum- 
stances appeared  to  have  brought  him  success  a  second 
time,  the  very  enormous  prospective  amount  of  the  property 
made  him  persuaded  that  extreme  caution  was  required. 
The  former  owners,  the  Van  Buskirks,  were  well  known  to 
a  great  number  of  respectable  Knickerbocker  families  in 
New  York.  The  purpose  for  which  they  went  abroad,  un- 
known at  first,  gradually  leaked  out,  and  at  this  moment 
it  began  to  be  currently  reported  that  they  were  at  Cairo, 
in  Egypt,  where  the  paltry  sum — one  hundred  thousand 
dollars — they  got  for  a  property  worth  three  or  four  times 
the  amount,  and  enormously  larger  in  prospect,  enabled 
them  to  start  in  business  and  gain  i\\e  favor  of  the  Khedive. 
All  this  rendered  the  case  curious,  extraordinary,  romantic. 
But  to  whom  had  they  sold  that  property  for  one  hundred 


TWO  FIGURES  VERY  UNLIKE.  467 

thonsand  dollars  ?  Some  former  friends  of  the  Van  Bus- 
kirks  had  already  reason  to  think  it  was  to  the  late  Mr. 
Ealph  Kirkbride,  who  could  very  well  afford  to  pay  the 
amount,  cash  down.  If  Mr.  Bauer  went  too  fast,  the  pub- 
lic records  of  the  city  would  attribute  the  same  payment  to 
himself  ;  and  people  would  naturally  inquire  how  he  could 
have  made  it.  Nothing,  besides,  would  be  so  easy  to  the 
friends  of  the  Yan  Buskirks,  as  to  write  to  them  and  ascer- 
tain with  whom  they  had  concluded  the  bargain. 

Thus  Mr.  E.  Bauer  saw  very  well  that  even  in  case  Mr. 
Wilson  could  not  bring  proofs  against  him  at  the  present 
time,  it  would  be  possible  to  procure  those  proofs  in  a  few 
months,  and  that  caution  was  absolutely  required.  He 
must  himself  write  to  the  Yan  Buskirks,  and  give  a  new 
turn  to  the  affair.  We  would  be  happy  indeed  to  be  able 
to  present  the  text  itself  of  the  epistle  to  our  readers.  It 
being  impossible  for  us  to  do  so,  we  are  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  giving  only  the  substance. 

A  Mr.  S.  Rotli  was  supposed  to  be  the  writer.  He  ac- 
quainted the  two  young  gentlemen  with  the  fact  of  Mr.  Ralph 
Kirkbride' s  sudden  death,  a  fact  which  might  have  happy 
consequences  for  them.  The  price  paid  by  the  purchaser 
for  their  property  was  ridiculously  low  and  unfair  ;  any 
Supreme  Court  judge  of  note  in  the  country  would  declare 
the  bargain  null  and  void,  as  there  was  no  other  compen- 
sation supposed  than  the  price  paid.  All  honest  men  in 
their  conscience  could  but  apjjrove  of  such  decision.  At 
least  the  young  gentlemen  would  be  sure  of  receiving  the 
same  sum  again  in  addition  to  what  had  been  paid  by  Mr. 
Kirkbride,  and  the  property  would  be  cheap  for  the  pur- 
chaser. Fortunately  for  them,  Mr.  S.  Roth  knew  that  the 
deed  signed  by  them  had  never  yet  been  recorded,  and, 
legally,  they  were  still  owners  of  the  property.  What  pro- 
posal could  they  make  to  the  writer  of  this  letter  ?  He  was 
awaiting  their  pleasure,  and  would  accommodate  them  to 
the  best  of  his  ability. 

Such  a  piece  of  news  conveyed  in  such  "honest"  and 
plain-spoken  language  as  this  was  well  calculated  to  tickle 


468  LOUISA  EIBEBBIDE. 

and  please  those  who  were  to  receive  it,  unless  they  were 
of  stern  integrity  and  altogether  above  greed  and  covetous- 
ness.  It  came  to  their  hands  in  Egypt  some  time  before  Mr. 
Wilson  wrote,  and  the  first  impression  it  i^roduced  on  them 
was  one  of  gratification  and  hope. 

When  they  disposed  of  their  joint  property,  they  knew 
the  price  was  not  adeqnate  to  its  abstract  value,  and  that 
if  they  conld  have  waited  for  the  payment,  and  accepted 
conditions  different  from  those  their  actual  interests  re- 
quired, a  much  larger  amount  would,  in  course  of  time, 
have  come  into  their  hands.  They  were  likewise  aware 
that  the  value  of  the  property  was  constantly  increasing, 
and  that,  had  they  kept  it  to  throw  it  on  the  market  two 
or  three  years  later,  they  might  naturally  expect  much 
more  than  double  the  price  they  received.  But  none  of  these 
conditions  agreed  with  their  actual  projects.  They  needed 
ready  cash,  and  to  find  in  an  instant  the  sum  of  one  hundred 
thousand  was  a  consideration  far  superior  to  any  other, 
which  rendered  acceptable  and  even  welcome  the  apparent 
insufficiency  of  the  sum  for  the  land  they  conveyed  to  the 
purchaser. 

But  on  the  receipt  of  the  pretended  Mr.  S.  Roth's  letter, 
the  matter  assumed,  in  their  mind,  a  different  shape,  and 
they  were  not  very  far  from  considering  themselves  the 
victims  of  a  sharper.  Their  position  in  Cairo  was  most 
promising,  and  was  entirely  due  to  the  money  they  brought. 
Still,  could  they  suddenly  add  to  their  capital  the  sum  men- 
tioned by  their  unknown  correspondent,  it  would  be  very 
favorable  to  the  happy  issue  of  their  first  ventures  on  the 
trade  with  Central  Africa  ;  and  certainly  the  remark  of  Mr. 
Roth,  that  any  able  judge  in  the  country  would  consider 
their  contract  with  Mr.  R.  Kirkbride  as  null  and  void,  did 
not  ai)pear  to  them  incredible  and  improbable  as  it  would 
to  us.  It  was  certainly  worth  trying,  and  without  injustice 
they  could  at  least  ask  of  the  representatives  of  the  first 
purchaser  an  indemnity,  which  they  would  leave  to  the  de- 
cision of  an  impartial  magistrate.  Should  the  heirs  of  Mr. 
Kirkbride  refuse  to  come  to  a  compromise,  then  they  might, 


TWO  FIGURES   VERY  UNLIKE.  469 

without  dishonor,  apply  for  a  judicial  revision  of  the  first 
bargain,  and  ask  for  the  declaration  of  its  nullity. 

It  was  in  this  sense  they  answered  the  letter  of  Mr.  Roth. 
Mr.  Ernst  Bauer,  of  course,  received  it,  and  was  only  half 
pleased  when  he  read  it.  Rogues  think  that  all  other  men 
are  rogues  of  the  same  fashion,  and  thus  Mr.  Bauer  had  no 
doubt,  when  he  wrote,  that  the  Messrs.  Yan  Buskirk,  be- 
ing apprised  that  their  former  deed  had  not  been  recorded, 
would  immediately  jump  at  the  conclusion  that  being  yet 
legal  owners  of  the  contested  property,  they  could  convey 
it  to  any  party  that  gave  them  an  additional  sum  of  one 
hundred  thousand.  But  in  their  answer  they  appeared  to 
regard  the  rights  of  the  first  purchaser,  and  to  give  him 
at  least  the  benefit  of  a  kind  of  preemption  clause. 

Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  was  almost  sorry  to  have  written  at  all. 
The  Messrs.  Van  Buskirk  would  certainly  now  communi- 
cate with  some  of  their  friends  in  New  York,  and  public 
attention  would  be  called  to  the  property  in  question. 
True,  no  one  would  think  of  him  personally,  since  the  name 
of  the  pretended  S.  Roth  would  lead  to  mystification  and 
deception,  yet  inquirers  might  come  to  think  of  him,  since 
young  Kirkbride  had  certainly  conceived  the  idea  of  his 
being  involved  in  the  affair,  when  he  sent  his  valet  to 
threaten  and  to  bluster  on  the  subject.  This  was  altogether 
disagreeable  ;  he  foresaw  the  possibility  of  having  to  give 
up  the  prize  he  thought  he  was  going  to  secure ;  and  if 
anything  had  taken  possession  of  his  soul  it  was  the  hope 
of  easily  coming  into  possession  of  prospective  enormous 
wealth.  How  many  sleepless  nights  would  be  the  result  of 
his  foolish  letter-writing  I  He  was  so  sure,  however,  when 
he  penned  his  epistle,  that  the  answer  would  be  the  means 
of  acquiring  in  a  proper  manner  a  legal  title  which  he  had 
not  before  seen  the  possibility  of  gaining,  except  through 
the  dangerous  means  of  forgery,  that  he  did  not  for  a  mo- 
ment doubt  that  he  was  acting  wisely  and  securely.  But 
now  the  squeamishness  of  conscience  of  those  two  young 
men  might  jeopardize  the  whole  plan,  and  lay  prostrate  on 
the  ground  all  his  fairest  hopes.     Another  letter  was  evi- 


470  LOUISA  KIBEBRIDE. 

dently  needed  to  repair  tlie  evil,  and  give  a  proper  turn  to 
the  ideas  of  the  two  Yan  Buskirks. 

He,  consequently,  wrote  again  to  correct,  he  said,  a  mis- 
apprehension produced  by  his  iirst  communication.  Mr.  R. 
Kirkbride,  in  fact,  left  no  heir,  since  his  son  died  soon  after 
him  without  issue,  and  after  having  gone  through  the 
wealth  of  his  father  ;  the  widow  lived  yet,  it  was  true,  but 
would  be  unable  to  promise  them  anything,  having  only 
just  enough  to  live  comfortably.  No  harm  would  come  to 
the  family  nor  to  anybody  else  if  they  were  disposed  to 
consider  themselves  owners  of  an  estate  for  which  they  had, 
in  truth,  received  no  equivalent,  and  which  still  legally  be- 
longed to  them,  since  no  record  could  be  found  of  the  former 
contract.  Should  they  enter  into  these  views  he — Mr.  Roth 
— wo  aid,  directly  on  the  receipt  of  their  answer,  find  a  gen- 
tleman competent  to  secure  to  them  the  amount  he  had  men- 
tioned in  his  first  letter.  They  might  appoint  from  Cairo,  a 
lawyer  in  New  York,  who  could  attend  to  this  business  for 
them,  and  see  that  the  proper  deeds  were  drawn  and  their 
interests  secured. 

There  is  no  telling  the  effect  this  would  have  produced 
on  the  Messrs.  Yan  Buskirk  had  they  not  received  in  the 
interval  between  the  two  letters  of  Mr.  "  Roth,"  a  very 
different  statement  which,  we  already  know,  was  sent 
them  by  Mr.  Wilson,  Mrs.  Kirkbride' s  attorney.  They 
heard  with  surprise  that  their  deed  with  the  widow's  hus- 
band had  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  an  agent — whom 
Mr.  Wilson  did  not  name — that  this  agent  had  not  car- 
ried the  legal  document  to  the  hall  of  records,  and,  evi- 
dently, was  pursuing  a  criminal  scheme  to  deprive  the 
widow  of  her  right  to  this  property.  They  were  politely 
requested  to  be  kind  enough  to  testify  in  their  answer  that 
they  had  transferred  it  to  Mr.  Kirkbride  for  the  sum  of  a 
hundred  thousand,  which  they  had  received,  and  in  this 
way  do  an  act  of  justice,  and  enable  the  lawful  owner  to 
assert  her  claims.  This  was  the  substance  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
letter. 

This,  in  the  eyes  of  the  two  young  men,  threw  a  flood  of 


TWO  FIGURES   VERT  UNLIKE.  471 

light  on  the  whole  transaction ;  they  at  once  saw  that  Mr. 
''  Roth  "  was  a  sharper  who  wished  to  make  them  accom- 
plices in  his  guilty  schemes  ;  they,  therefore,  entered  di- 
rectly into  communication  with  the  attorney  of  the  lady, 
without  vouchsafing  an  answer  to  Mr.  ''Roth's"  second 
letter. 

They  merely  stated  to  Mr.  Wilson  that  one  of  them  would 
have  occasion  to  cross  over  to  the  United  States,  "early 
next  year,*'  and  he  would  then  set  everything  right ;  ac- 
knowledging, as  they  were  requested  to  do,  that  they  had 
sold  their  property  in  New  York  to  Mr.  Ralph  Ku^kbride 
for  a  sum,  however,  which  they  had  heard  since  was  not 
proportional  to  its  value.  Everything,  they  hoped,  would 
be  rectified  in  a  personal  interview.  They  did  not  mention 
anything  relative  to  their  unknown  correspondent,  so  that 
when  Mr.  Wilson  received  the  answer,  he  was  puzzled  to 
know  on  what  grounds  they  could  intimate  the  insufficiency 
of  the  price  accepted  by  them  with  a  full  knowledge  of 
all  the  circumstances.  He  was,  moreover,  annoyed  by  the 
delay  intimated  in  their  letter;  "early  next  year"  was  a 
period  still  far  distant,  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  a  right  to 
have  this  affair  settled  immediately.  He  made  up  his  mind 
consequently,  to  open  negotiations  with  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer, 
and  called  directly  on  Mrs.  Kirkbride  and  Mr.  Cornelius 
O' Byrne  to  concert  with  them  the  measures  most  calculated 
to  insure  prompt  success. 

The  great  point  gained  in  these  lengthy  transactions  was 
the  certainty  of  the  sale,  in  spite  of  the  intimation  to  the 
contrary  which  Mr.  Wilson  had  received  on  the  subject. 
It  was  evident  that  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer,  whom  Mr.  Wilson 
then  understood  had  been  chosen  agent  for  this  particular 
affair,  was  in  possession  of  the  coveted  deed  ;  and  the  only 
thing  to  be  discussed  between  him  and  young  0' Byrne  was 
as  to  the  best  means  of  wresting  it  from  the  grasping  hand 
of  the  sharper.  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  was  destined  to 
show  his  ability  on  this  occasion. 

In  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  therefore,  the  two 
friends  of  the  lady  had  an  interesting  conversation  on  the 


472  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

subject.  After  the  worthy  attorney  had  explained  to  the 
young  lawyer  all  the  circumstances  he  knew,  as  they  have 
been  briefly  related,  O'  Byrne  expressed  his  conviction  that 
not  only  E.  Bauer  had  the  deed  in  his  possession,  but  that  he 
it  was  who  had^ratten  to  Messrs.  Van  Buskirk.  "  No  one 
else  in  New  York,"  he  said,  "had  any  interest  to  communi- 
cate with  these  gentlemen  for  that  purpose.  No  one,  even, 
would  think  of  it.  Mr.  Wilson  could  remember  that  in  look- 
ing for  information  on  the  present  residence  of  the  young 
men,  most  of  their  former  intimate  friends  had  altogether 
forgotten  them.  They  left  behind  them  no  near  relatives  to 
keep  up  a  correspondence  ;  so  that  no  one  appeared  to  know 
what  had  become  of  them.  It  was,  at  the  last  moment,  and 
when  further  inquiries  were  going  to  be  given  up,  that,  casu- 
ally, some  one  remembered  a  rumor,  sj)read  at  their  depar- 
ture, among  many  conjectures,  that  they  intended  to  settle 
in  Egypt ;  and  lastly  a  short  paragraph  of  a  correspondent 
of  some  New  York  paper,  adverted  to  their  residence  at 
Cairo,  where  they  had  become  successful  merchants. 

Mr.  Ernst  Bauer,  on  the  contrary,  had  a  great  interest 
to  look  after  them  and  write  to  them.  Evidently  the  docu- 
ment he  possessed,  and  had  never  recorded,  could  be  of  no 
use  to  him  unless  he  altered  it  and  put  his  own  name  instead 
of  that  of  Mr.  E..  Kirkbride.  He  must  have  been  afraid 
of  coming  to  this  determination ;  his  only  resource  then 
was  to  try  to  obtain  another  deed  of  sale  from  Messrs.  Yan 
Buskirk  to  himself,  or  some  tool  of  his,  for  a  large  considera- 
tion ;  and  the  temptation  evidently  had  produced  an  im- 
pression on  the  two  young  gentlemen,  since  they  spoke  of 
insufficiency  of  price,  and  new  arrangements  to  be  entered 
into,  satisfactory  to  both  parties,  etc.  .  .  .  ''The  best  policy 
to  be  followed  in  my  opinion,"  added  in  conclusion  young 
O' Byrne,  ''is  to  go  boldly  to  the  rascal;  and  if  he  denies 
the  possession  of  the  paper,  to  threaten  him  with  a  criminal 
prosecution,  supporting  the  menace  with  the  positive  asser- 
tion of  all  the  just-mentioned  circumstances,  which  I  con- 
sider as  certain  and  not  to  be  doubted  ;  and  in  case  my  pre- 
visions are  right,  he  will  be  scared  into  giving  back  the 


TWO  FIGURES   VERY  UNLIKE.  473 

paper  on  conditions  that  will  secure  Mm  from  an  infamous 
prosecution.     Nothing  more  would  I  promise  him." 

Mr.  Wilson,  although  not  altogether  sharing  in  the  firm 
conviction  of  his  friend,  agreed  that  it  might  be  the  best 
way  open  to  them,  and  they  therefore  decided  to  carry  out 
their  project  the  following  day. 

Meanwhile,  McElheran,  unable  to  find  rest  and  enjoy  life 
in  his  rural  retreat,  determined  to  make  a  personal  effort  to 
conquer  the  resistance  of  Julia.  C.  0' Byrne  had  told  him 
she  would  never  give  way  unless  his  own  relatives  altered 
their  deteimination.  He  must  see  hoAv  far  this  was  true  ; 
and  he  thought  that  the  love  which  burned  in  his  heart 
would  speak  so  eloquently  through  his  lips  that  she  would 
not  be  able  to  resist.  To  succeed  more  surely  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  attack  her  unawares,  and  overwhelm  her,  when 
she  least  expected  it.  He  knew  that  latterly  she  was,  if 
possible,  more  given  than  ever  before  to  the  practices  of 
her  religion,  and  that,  every  morning,  she  went  to  the 
church  of  St.  Laurence,  often  alone  and  always  at  the  same 
hour.  One  morning,  he  took  an  open  carriage  with  two 
horses,  arrived  at  the  church,  when  the  service  at  which 
Julia  assisted  was  half  through,  and  when  she  came  out, 
she  unexpectedly  found  him  at  the  door,  evidently  waiting 
for  her,  and  inviting  her  to  go  home  in  his  carriage. 

To  refuse  would  be  to  show  a  distrust  which  Julia  never 
felt ;  and,  with  the  greatest  good  nature,  she  took  her  seat 
near  him,  and  they  were  soon  in  the  Park. 

"I  am  sure,  Miss  0' Byrne,"  he  began,  "  that  your  brother, 
with  the  best  intention  in  the  world,  left  you  under  a  false 
impression,  when,  at  my  request,  he  informed  you  of  the 
opposition  of  my  relatives  to  my  ever  marrying  any  one  but 
a  rich  heiress.  You  thought,  no  doubt,  that  they  had  some 
kind  of  right  to  dictate  to  me  their  conditions,  when  they 
have  not  a  shadow  of  authority  in  the  matter.  I  am  sure 
that,  were  my  parents  alive,  they  would,  with  the  greatest 
pleasure,  consent  to  our  union  as  soon  as  they  became 
acquainted  with  you  ;  but  these  people,  who  would  assume 


474  LOUISA  KIBEBMIDE. 

over  me  parental  rights  without  even  a  pretense  to  tliem, 
are  moved  by  motives  which  no  honorable  person  can  ap- 
prove. They  speak  of  the  influence  of  the  family,  but  they 
think  only  of  their  own  presumed  influence.  But  what  is 
most  absurd,  is  that  they  continue  to  harp  on  the  subject, 
when  my  removal  to  this  country,  which  I  intend  to  adopt 
as  my  own,  does  not  leave  them  even  a  shadow  of  hope  that 
my  union  with  the  richest  possible  heiress  could  in  the  least 
help  their  ridiculous  pretensions.  In  going  counter  to  their 
schemes,  we  violate  no  obligation  whatever,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  we  give  them  a  useful  lesson.  I  am  confident 
that,  after  we  are  married,  they  will  change  their  tone,  and 
no  longer  stand  up  so  firmly  for  their  injured  respectability ; 
they  will  soon  come  round,  and  ask  nothing  better  than  to 
resume  their  friendly  relations  with  us,  which  we  will  then 
grant  or  refuse,  as  we  think  proper." 

''My  brother,  dear  Mr.  McElheran,"  Julia  replied,  ''did 
not,  it  is  true,  give  to  the  case  the  strong  light  you  put  it 
in ;  but  my  reasons  for  delay — for  I  spoke  only  of  delay — 
remain,  nevertheless,  the  same.  If  it  was  perfectly  sure 
that,  the  thing  being  done,  they  would  not  continue  to  keep 
aloof,  I  would  at  once  agree  with  you,  and  leave  you  to 
decide  on  the  time  and  circumstances  that  should  suit  you. 
But  should  they  remain  obstinate  in  their  determination,  a 
state  of  affairs  would  follow  which  I  am  sure  you  yourself 
would  deprecate.  During  your  whole  life,  a  complete  es- 
trangement between  you  and  your  people  would  be  the  con- 
sequence of  a  hasty  step  ;  and  you  know  how,  in  our  country, 
we  look  on  such  mutual  positions  between  relatives  and 
friends,  Not  only  half  the  sweetness  of  life  is  taken  away, 
which  consists  in  a  large  family  intercourse,  but,  in  the 
opinion  of  Irish  people,  a  positive  disgrace  is  attached  to  it, 
as  if  a  great  crime  had  been  committed  which  was  the  cause 
of  such  an  unnatural  situation.  As  for  myself,  I  must  con- 
fess that  my  happiness,  to  which  you  certainly  look,  would 
be  highly  compromised  and  interfered  with  by  the  con- 
stant thought  that  I  had  been  the  cause  of  this  false  posi- 
tion.    My  idea  of  marriage  is,  that  not  only  the  two  persons 


TWO  FIGURES  VERT  UNLIKE.  475 

more  intimately  connected  enter  into  tMs  bond,  bnt  also  the 
families  to  which  the  principals  belong,  must  come  together 
in  a  closer  nnion ;  and,  if  they  are  separated  instead  of 
being  Joined  together,  marriage  has  lost  half  its  pleasant- 
ness. Try,  therefore,  my  friend,  to  overcome  the  opposi- 
tion of  your  kinsmen,  and  I  will  directly  give  my  hand  to 
you." 

''Your  reflections,  Julia,"  insisted  McElheran,  ''increase 
my  affection  for  you,  because  they  show  the  loftiness  of  your 
thoughts  ;  but  allow  me,  however,  to  observe  that  they  sup- 
pose a  system  of  society  which  has  now  given  way  every- 
where else,  and  is  rapidly  disappearing  in  our  own  dear 
island.  Clanship  has  ceased  to  exist,  and  it  was  chiefly 
owing  to  clanship  that  these  sentiments  justly  prevailed. 
If  the  McElheran  and  the  0' Byrne  septs  were  now  what 
they  once  were,  it  might  be  proper  and  just  to  oblige  the 
individuals  to  sacrifice  their  own  feeling  to  the  firmly  fixed 
resolutions  of  the  clans ;  but  the  whole  of  this  state  of 
things  is  gone,  to  my  regret  and  yours,  certainly  ;  and  so- 
ciety, as  constituted  in  our  days,  offers  us  the  larger  inter- 
course of  mankind  in  general,  advantageously  replacing 
that  of  simple  tribes.  We  will  not  want  friends,  in  the  big 
city  of  New  York,  even  should  all  the  McElherans,  without 
a  single  exception,  refuse  to  smile  on  our  happy  union." 

"I  am  not  altogether  sure,"  replied  Julia,  "that  it  is 
thoroughly  as  you  say.  There  are  still  in  existence  more 
tribal  affinities  and  discrepancies  than  most  people  imagine. 
All  my  life  I  have  felt  it,  and  always  unexpectedly  met 
with  the  fierce  opposition  of  natural  enemies,  and,  thank 
God,  also  the  deep  affection  of  clannish  friends.  You, 
yourself,  know  this  well,  Mr.  McElheran." 

"Yes,"  he  replied  with  a  smile;  "still  there  are  great 
and  happy  exceptions  to  what,  dear  Julia,  your  heart  ex- 
presses so  well.  Are  you  not,  every  day,  reposing  on  the 
bosom  of  one  of  those  '  national  enemies '  of  whom  you  just 
spoke  ?  Do  you  not  call  yourself  the  daughter  of  one  of 
them  1  and  justly  so.  I  admire,  for  my  part,  the  deep  in- 
timacy that  has  grown  up  between  you,  a  pure  Milesian, 


476  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

and  the  dear  lady,  whose  life-blood  is,  to  the  last  drop, 
Anglo-Norman.  You  would  not  consent  to  marry  the  son 
of  a  king,  if  he  obliged  you  to  separate  from  her  ;  and  you 
are  right.  Admit,  therefore,  sweet  disputant,  that  there 
are  noble  exceptions  to  your  strict  tribal  theory,  and  that 
the  intercourse  of  mankind  is  larger  and  happier  than  that 
of  the  restricted  fellowship  of  the  first  remove  from  the 
family." 

"I  shall  admit  it,"  said  Julia,  with  a  hearty  laugh, 
"when  all  mankind  will  have  attained  to  the  loving  sweet- 
ness of  my  second  dear  'mother.'  Then  we  shall  have  the 
millennium :  the  ocean  turned  into  buttermilk,  the  rivers 
into  streams  of  honey,  the  venomous  snakes  into  harmless 
pets,  the  swords  into  pruning  hooks,  and  .  .  .  you  know 
the  rest." 

At  this  moment,  McElheran  could  not  but  join  heartily 
in  the  laugh. 

"I  thought,"  he  said,  "  that  in  this  conversation  I  would 
be  more  eloquent  than  you,  but  I  see  that  I  have  to  take 
lessons  from  you.  I  know,  however,  that  when  love  speaks 
to  your  heart,  as  it  speaks  to  mine,  you  will  share  all  my 
opinions,  and  will  say  that  the  opposition  of  all  the  fools  in 
the  world  cannot  stand  in  the  way  of  two  hearts,  melting  at 
once  into  one,  and  sharing  in  the  same  feelings,  belief,  and 
hope." 

At  this  moment,  the  carriage  reached  the  entrance  to 
Mrs.  Kirkbride's  house,  and  Kosa,  opening  the  door,  was 
surprised  to  see  Julia  coming  from  mass  in  a  carriage  with 
Mr.  McElheran. 

''Has  there  been  a  marriage  in  St.  Laurence's  Church, 
this  morning  ?  "  boldly  asked  the  little  vixen,  who  seemed 
to  be  in  the  best  of  humor. 

"It  would  not  be  proper  in  me  to  answer  this  question," 
said  McElheran  ;  "but  I  hope  you  will  soon  inform  us  of 
your  own ;  then  the  day  will  be  a  merry  one,  I  ween,  and 
we  will  be  able  to  tease  you,  without  fearing  a  repartee 
from  a  modest  young  bride  like  yourself." 

Rosa  saw  that  she  had  been  somewhat  indiscreet ;  she 


TWO  FIGURES   VERY  UNLIKE  477 

blushed,  and  begged,  however,  Mr.  McElheran  to  come  in, 
as  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  just  expressed  a  desire  of  having  a 
conversation  with  him,  the  lirst  time  he  came  to  the  door. 

The  lady  received  our  young  friend  in  her  room,  where 
she  was  busily  working  near  a  small  table  covered  with  un- 
finished dresses  and  the  materials  necessary  for  her  work. 
As  soon  as  the  gentleman  was  seated,  she  began  in  her 
usual  simple  way ; 

''During  the  short  time  I  have  known  you,  sir,  I  have 
remarked  that  you  are  one  of  those  true  gentlemen  with 
whom  one  can  be  bold  without  fear.  You  are  a  physician, 
and  I  need  you,  not  for  myself,  thank  God,  nor  for  the  two 
excellent  girls  who  live  with  me,  but  for  some  of  the  people 
around.  I  cannot  do  so  much  for  the  poor  as  I  did  when 
I  was  rich  ;  yet,  at  least,  I  can  visit  them  and  relieve  them 
with  words  of  consolation  and  the  trifles  I  can  bring  them. 
Julia  helps  me  admirably  in  this,  and  I  am  sure  that  the 
good  child  likes  it,  and  would  make  an  excellent  Sister  of 
Mercy.  Perhaps  it  is  the  happy  lot  God  destines  for  her, 
and  she  is  so  religiously  inclined,  that  I  have  no  doubt  she 
thinks  of  it,  although  she  never  has  said  a  word  of  it  to  me, 
probably  through  fear  of  paining  me.  She  does  not  know, 
poor  child,  that  I  would  not  thwart  her  inclination  in  the 
least,  if  it  leant  that  way.  I  would  willingly  give  her  to 
God,  although  I  would  sadly  miss  her.  But  here  I  am  ram- 
bling like  an  old  woman  that  I  am,  and  this  has  nothing 
to  do  with  what  I  intended  to  say.  In  our  visits  to  the 
shanties  of  the  neighborhood  we  often  meet  with  cases  of 
sickness,  and,  sometimes,  of  serious  sickness.  Many  of  those 
afflicted  with  them  cannot  afford  to  pay  for  a  doctor,  and 
have  to  rely  on  the  city  physicians,  who  are,  most  of  them, 
far  from' belonging  to  the  'order  of  charity.'  Fortunately, 
thus  far,  I  have  had  a  good  man  to  help  me.  Dr.  Dillon — 
perhaps  you  have  heard  of  him  V^  Here  McElheran  nodded 
assent.  ' '  Well,  dear  Dr.  Dillon,  who  is  considerably  older 
than  I  am,  has  done  a  great  deal  for  the  poor  in  his  life,  but 
he  is  becoming  infirm,  and  sometimes  can  scarcely  go  out. 
There  is  work,  besides,  for  two  doctors  rather  than  for  one, 


478  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

and  I  have  thought  that,  in  yonr  leisure  moments,  you 
would  not  object  to  answer  our  calls  for  help,  when  we  have 
an  occasion  to  call." 

"Indeed,  madam,  you  make  me  happy  by  your  pro- 
posal," interposed  eagerly  the  young  physician.  "In  my 
immediate  neighborhood  I  already  do  what  you  ask  me, 
and  I  can  extend  my  visits  farther.  I  am  altogether  at 
your  service,  and  from  this  day  out  you  will  do  me  plea- 
sure by  sending  for  me  as  often  as  you  have  occasion  to 
do  so." 

"Thank  you,  most  sincerely,"  replied  the  lady  ;  "but  in 
this  case,  you  must  become  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  good  Dr.  Dillon.     Do  you  know  him  personally  ?  " 

" I  have  not  that  honor,"  said  McElheran,  "but  I  have 
heard  of  him,  and  would  feel  indeed  happy  to  become  per- 
sonally associated  with  him  in  the  good  work  you  propose." 

"Admirable !  "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Kirkbride  ;  "please come 
to-morrow  to  dine  with  us  at  five  o'clock.  I  cannot  pro- 
mise you  as  good  fare  as  that  which  we  enjoyed  in  your 
house  ;  but  our  meal  will  be  seasoned  by  friendship  and 
the  holy  feeling  of  charity  for  our  neighbor.  You  will  be 
pleased,  I  am  sure,  to  know  Dr.  Dillon,  who,  by-the-by,  is 
an  Irishman  like  yourself,  although  not  a  Catholic,  but  I 
am  sure  that  the  prayers  of  the  good  Catholics  whom  he 
has  attended  all  his  life,  will  secure  for  him,  in  the  end,  a 
blessing  greater  than  health  and  worldly  prosperity." 

It  was  with  a  feeling  aldn  to  reverence  that  Mr.  McElheran 
left  the  good  lady.  What  she  had  said  of  Julia  thinking 
of  becoming  a  nun  had  surprised  him  ;  as  he  thought  that 
the  intimacy  existing  between  the  two  women  required 
more  openness  of  heart  on  the  part  of  Julia.  He  had  a  fine 
opportunity  to  put  her  a  few  questions  on  the  subject,  the 
first  time  they  met  alone. 

We  will  not  give  the  details  of  the  dinner,  as  the  conver- 
sation which  took  place  is  for  us  of  a  far  greater  import- 
ance. Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  seated  at  table  alone  with  the 
two  doctors ;  Julia  waited  on  them,  and  Rosa  remained  in 
the  kitchen.     She  had  to  bestow  her  undivided  attention  to 


TWO  FIGURES   VERY  UNLIKE.  479 

the  dishes,  as  she  wished  to  give  the  two  gentlemen  a 
sample  of  her  ability.  The  fare  of  the  day,  far  superior  to 
the  usual  diet  of  the  house,  was  yet  poor  enough,  and  it 
would  have  required  all  the  skill  of  a  French  cook  to  please 
a  fastidious  epicurean  taste  with  it,  such  as  it  was.  Poor 
Rosa  certainly  did  her  best,  and  nobody  thought  of  com- 
plaining when  he  was  served.  But  the  talking  was  to  be 
the  chief  business,  and  Dr.  Dillon,  to  his  honor,  did  the 
most  of  it.  When  he  saw  near  him  on  the  empty  part  of 
the  table  the  diagram  of  the  neighborhood  drawn  by  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  and  Julia  both  together,  and  the  dots  marking 
the  various  houses  which  were  to  be  occasionally  visited,  he 
said  to  his  new  young  friend,  toward  whom  he  pushed  the 
paper : 

"This,  sir,  explains  at  once  the  whole  situation.  As 
there  are  not  yet  any  numbers  painted  on  the  strange 
medley  of  dwellings  along  these  awkward  streets,  the  lady 
has  done  well  to  draw  this  sketch,  truly  eloquent  in  its 
simplicity.  You  will  remark,  doctor,  that  the  dots  indicat- 
ing the  places  where  it  will  be  our  duty  to  go,  are  all,  or 
nearly  all,  in  the  interior  of  the  lots,  very  few  along  the 
streets  and  avenues,  in  fact  they  nearly  all  indicate  the 
place  of  shanties,  as  such  architectural  monstrosities  are 
called  ;  and  there  is  no  need  of  telling  you  that  the  dwellers 
in  them  are  Milesian  Celts  like  yourself,  Dr.  McElheran, 
with  a  few  stray  Strongbownians  like  me." 

There  was,  of  course,  a  laugh  in  which  the  speaker  alone 
did  not  appear  to  join,  for  Julia  herself  was  convulsed. 

"You  may  laugh,"  continued  Dr.  Dillon,  "but  I  am  se- 
rious. How  is  it,  madam" — looking  at  the  lady — "that 
all  your  charity  now  is  directed  to  Papists  ?  Why  do  you 
not  at  least  go  after  some  of  the  Episcopalians  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, having  all  your  life  been  such  a  devoted  Episco- 
palian yourself  ?  But  I  hear  that  you  are  taking  a  bad 
turn ;  and  this  diagram  confirms  what  I  have  heard.  If  I 
was  not  such  a  good-natured  man  as  I  am,  I  would  have 
long  ago  refused  to  tender  my  services  to  your  dear  pets, 
or  I  would  at  least  have  imposed  the  condition  that  your 


480  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

former  co-religionists  and  mine  should  not  altogether  be 
forgotten." 

This  was  said  with  such  seriousness,  not  to  use  the  word 
savageness,  that  Mr.  McElheran  at  first  was  scarcely  able  to 
see  a  joke  in  it.  But  as  the  lady  and  Julia  burst  into  laugh- 
ter more  than  ever,  he  directly  understood  something  of  the 
situation,  which  Mrs.  Kirkbride  fully  explained,  as  soon  as 
she  was  able  to  speak. 

"You  are  always  the  same  man,  Dr.  Dillon,"  she  said, 
''and  you  will  never  stop  teasing  me;  but  to  explain  the 
thing  better  to  our  new  friend,  I  beg  of  you,  as  you  are  far 
better  acquainted  with  the  neighborhood  than  I  am  myself, 
to  dot  with  your  pencil  all  the  Episcopalian  houses  of  the 
district,  and  I  will  not  only  consent  to  you  and  Dr.  McEl- 
heran visiting  them  ;  but  I  will  do  the  same  with  Julia  every 
day  in  the  year." 

Dr.  Dillon  looked  all  the  time  serious,  and  with  his  eyes 
intent  on  the  diagram,  he  followed  with  his  pencil  all  the 
avenues  and  streets,  and,  at  last,  making  a  rapid  lunge  with 
his  pointer,  he  described  a  monstrously  large  dot  on  the  spot 
indicating  the  house  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

''  Indeed,"  he  said,  "I  see  my  mistake  ;  yours  is  the  only 
Episcopalian  house  that  I  know  in  this  neighborhood ;  and 
I  might  as  well  add  that  all  the  others,  as  far  as  my  knowl- 
edge extends,  are  neither  Episcopalian  nor  Catholic,  but 
belong,  in  fact,  to  the  broad  church  whose  teaching  is  that 
charity,  being  a  low  feeling,  requires  a  craven  spirit  to  ask 
it,  and  to  their  houses  we  will  not  be  called.  I  am  glad, 
however,  that  there  is  yet  a  house  of  my  persuasion,  since 
I  hope,  madam,  that  I  can  still  call  you  an  Episcopalian." 

''Even  in  such  a  case,"  replied  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  "your 
spiritual  kingdom,  doctor,  would  be  of  small  extent,  since, 
either  above  in  the  apartments  of  Mr.  Froment,  or  here, 
with  my  two  girls  alone,  independent  of  myself,  it  may  be 
said,  that  the  Catholic  Church  has  completely  invaded  this 
house." 

"I  see  it,"  rejoined  Dr.  Dillon,  "and  the  phenomenon  is 
remarkable  enough,  not  only  here,  but  in  many  other  places 


TWO  FIGURES   VERT  UNLIKE,  481 

besides.  So  that  if  we  wish  to  continue  to  be  charitable,  we 
must  extend  our  charity  to  the  Catholics,  who  are,  after  all, 
interesting  objects  of  it.  Thus,  Dr.  McElheran,  I  do  not 
know  if  you  will  come  to  the  same  conclusion  with  me,  but 
I  am  determined  to  have  a  copy  of  this  diagram — dots  and 
all — made  for  myself,  and  as  often  as  I  can  go  out,  I  will 
never  refuse  to  attend  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  sick-calls." 

Dr.  McElheran  had  seldom  been  so  well  pleased,  in  all 
his  life.  He  heartily  shook  hands  with  Dr.  Dillon,  and  said 
that,  being  young  and  healthy,  he  hoped  that  the  greater 
number  of  calls  would  fall  to  his  share,  and  chiefly  in  bad 
weather  and  at  night  Dr.  Dillon  should  be  left  quiet,  in  his 
house  or  bed,  and  the  messenger  always  directed  to  his 
dwelling,  on  the  Bloom ingdale  Eoad.  This  arrangement, 
suiting  all  parties,  was  decided  upon  as  the  best ;  and  soon 
the  young  physician  began  to  know  all  the  particularities 
of  the  "Irish  village,"  clustering  around  the  "lonesome 
brick  house,"  as  it  was  first  called,  but  which  every  one 
declared  was  now  a  misnomer,  as  nothing  could  be  "lone- 
some" with  Mrs.  Kirkbride  in  the  centre,  and  a  whole  clan 
in  the  circumference. 

When  the  two  new  friends  had  left  the  house,  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride, full  still  of  unusual  glee,  said  to  Julia:  "This  excel- 
lent old  Dr.  Dillon  deserves  a  reward  for  his  past  services, 
suitable  to  his  character  and  temper  of  mind.  Please,  child, 
procure  a  piece  of  parchment,  on  which  you  will  inscribe, 
in  your  best  handwTiting,  and  the  most  pleasant  and  witty 
way,  a  diploma  in  regular  form,  making  him  Head  Physi- 
cian for  life  of  the  delightful  district,  comjjrised  between 
the  Bloomingdale  Road  on  the  west,  and  the  Central  Park 
on  the  east.  This  will  be  for  him  an  agreeable  surprise  on 
which  he  will  comment,  you  may  be  sure,  with  more  than 
his  ordinary  humor."  Kosa,  who  was  present,  said  it  was 
the  very  thing,  and  she  would  willingly  be  the  messenger 
to  take  it  to  him  in  person,  as  soon  as  it  would  be  finished. 
31 


CHAPTER  XXXIL 

CONTINUATION   OF  THE  SAME  SUBJECT. 

Whilst  the  dinner  party  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  going  on 
in  the  wilderness  of  the  West  Side,  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  was 
engaged  in  a  brown  study  in  his  Wall  Street  office.  The 
answer  to  his  second  letter  to  Cau'o  ought  to  have  "come 
to  hand"  much  sooner ;  what  was  the  cause  of  the  delay  ? 
Everybody  knows  how  uneasy  a  rogue  feels,  when  he  fears 
that  his  schemes  are  about  to  be  frustrated.  He  had  so 
long  flattered  himself  with  the  delicious  thought  that  by 
degrees  a  mine  of  wealth  was  going  to  fall  into  his  lap,  that 
the  very  idea  of  non-success  could  not  fail  to  be  more  bitter 
than  wormwood.  His  first  epistle  to  the  Messrs.  Yan  Bus- 
kirk,  though  prudent,  guarded,  and  in  proper  form,  had 
been  to  him  the  cause  of  much  anxiety.  He  saw  now  that 
he  had  failed  to  mention  in  it  several  considerations  well 
calculated  to  make  them  catch  at  the  bait  more  promptly, 
and  that  it  was,  in  fact,  too  short  to  cover  the  whole  ground 
and  satisfy  them  on  every  point.  But  his  second  letter  had 
fully  corrected  the  blunder ;  there  could  be  no  reason  for 
them  to  postpone  attending  directly  to  the  business.  He 
did  not  see  that  anything  essential  was  omitted  in  it ;  and 
every  word  of  it  must  have  satisfied  their  squeamishness 
and  conscientious  scruples,  and  all  that.  Consequently, 
when  he  wrote  it,  and  after  he  had  sent  it,  and  now  at 
this  very  moment,  he  was  sure,  that  as  soon  as  it  would  be 
received  at  Cairo,  it  would  bring  from  the  gentlemen  to 
whom  it  was  addressed  a  prompt  answer,  which  by  good 
management  would  secure  him  the  prize  he  coveted.     But 

482 


TWO  FIGURES   VERY   UNLIKE.  483 

no  answer  arrived  ;  two,  three,  four  months  had  passed,  and 
nothing  had  come.  What  could  be  the  cause  of  it  ?  a  puz- 
zling question  to  a  sanguine  man !  But  the  very  evening 
of  the  dinner,  of  which  Mr.  Bauer  knew  nothing,  of  course, 
another  letter  was  brought  by  the  carrier,  of  a  very  differ- 
ent import,  and  from  a  very  different  source.  It  was  a  city 
letter  ;  it  came  from  the  office  of  the  district  attorney.  Mr. 
Ernst  Bauer  was  politely  requested  to  call  at  that  office, 
next  evening  at  eight  o'clock;  the  note  was  signed  by  C. 
0' Byrne.  What  could  it  be  ?  A  guilty  conscience  is  always 
afraid  ;  and  the  first  impression  it  made  on  Mr.  Bauer  was 
rather  a  painful  one.  He  soon,  however,  recovered  from  it. 
If  a  criminal  prosecution  was  intended,  it  could  not  take 
that  shape.  Some  trifling  aflPair,  probably,  was  at  the  bot- 
tom of  it ;  and  he  dismissed  the  thought  from  his  mind, 
already  agitated  enough  by  his  anxiety  about  Cairo.  The 
following  day,  he  was  punctual,  at  eight  o'clock,  to  the 
request  contained  in  the  note  ;  and  he  was  at  first  surprised, 
startled  would  be  a  better  expression,  by  finding  that  Mr. 
O' Byrne  was  not  alone,  but  that  Mr.  W.  Wilson — whom  he 
knew  very  well — was  likewise  in  the  office.  He  was  begged 
to  be  seated,  and  Mr.  C.  0' Byrne  began  directly  a  very  in- 
teresting conversation  :  "  Please  infoim  us,  sir,  of  what  you 
have  done  wdth  the  conveyance  intrusted  to  you,  at  the  end 
of  August,  last  year,  by  Mr.  Ralph  Kirkbride,  to  be  taken  in 
his  name  to  the  office  of  record  ? " 

"Your  question,  sir,"  anwered  Mr.  Bauer,  "is  a  puzzle 
to  me.  Of  which  Mr.  Kirkbride  do  you  speak  ?  I  am  not 
acquainted  with  any  person  of  that  name." 

*' Perhaps  not  now,"  replied  Mr.  0' Byrne,  "since  the 
gentleman  is  dead  ;  but  you  were  then  acquainted  with  him 
so  far  as  to  become  his  agent." 

"In  August  of  last  year,"  asserted  positively  Mr.  E. 
Bauer,  "I  did  not  become  the  agent  of  any  person  of  the 
name  of  Kirkbride." 

"  I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  contradict  you,"  interposed 
Mr.  Wilson,  "but  at  the  time  mentioned,  Mr.  Kirkbride, 
having  purchased,  through  your  instrumentality,  a  very 


484  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

valuable  property,  appointed  you  liis  agent  for  that  affair, 
at  your  urgent  request,  instead  of  Mr.  W.  Croft,  Ms  habitual 
agent  for  his  real  estate." 

"If  this  is  the  only  thing  you  wished  to  ask  of  me,"  re- 
torted, vehemently,  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer,  "  I  beg  of  you  to  allow 
me  to  withdraw,  as  I  know  absolutely  nothing  of  it ;"  and 
the  gentleman  was  already  taking  his  hat  to  leave  the  office. 

"Please  sit  down  again  quietly,"  interposed  Mr.  C. 
O' Byrne  ;   "I  have  some  more  questions  to  put  to  you." 

"I  want  to  know  first,"  replied  Mr.  Bauer,  "what  right 
you  have  to  put  questions  to  me  at  all ;  who  are  you  V 

"This  inquiry  is  right,"  answered  Mr.  0' Byrne;  "this 
gentleman  is  Mr.  W.  Wilson,  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  attorney, 
and  I  am  the  deputy  district  attorney  :  that  is  to  say :  Mr. 
Wilson  having  applied  to  this  officer  to  institute  proceed- 
ings in  a  criminal  action,  if  required,  to  restore  to  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  a  property  belonging  to  her,  of  which  she  is 
unjustly  deprived,  the  district  attorney  has  constituted 
me  his  deputy  to  make  the  preliminary  inquiries :  and 
as  you  are,  at  least,  a  participator  in  the  affair,  our  first 
inquiry  must  refer  to  you.  We  are,  therefore,  authorized 
to  put  you  questions  ;  and  please  answer  for  me  this  second 
one:  "Had  not  your  letters  to  the  Messrs.  Van  Buskirk 
in  Cairo,  Egypt,  some  reference  to  the  real  estate  purchased 
through  you  for  Mr.  Kirkbride,  and  now  rightfully  belong- 
ing to  his  widow  ? ' ' 

This  was  a  startling  and  unexpected  query,  and  Mr.  E. 
Bauer  was  at  first  staggered  by  it.  How  did  his  questioners 
know  that  the  Van  Buskirks  existed  at  all  ?  Had  they  like- 
wise written  to  them,  and  received  an  answer  implicating 
him  ?  He  was  at  first  decidedly  confused  in  his  thoughts  ; 
but  he  soon  regained  his  coolness,  and  as  it  is  usual  for 
rogues,  preferred  a  lie  to  the  truth."  "  Your  knowledge, 
gentlemen,"  he  answered,  "extends  farther  than  mine; 
I  have  no  coiTespondence  with  Egypt,  and  would  not  be 
able  even  to  repeat  the  strange  proper  name  you  have  just 
pronounced  :  Van  Barkers  !  what  do  you  mean  ? ' ' 

"You  know  the  name  as  well  as  we  do,"  replied  Mr. 


TWO  FIGURES   VERY  UNLIKE.  485 

O' Byrne.  ''They  are  the  very  gentlemen  from  whom  you 
got  a  fee  for  selling  their  property  to  Mr.  Kirkbride  ;  and 
since  you  do  not  want  to  give  us  the  information  we  ask  of 
you,  you  ^vill  have  to  be  tried  as  a  criminal  for  it." 

''  I  defy  you  !  "  he  exclaimed,  and  left  the  room. 

When  he  reached  his  office  in  Wall  Street,  he  was  in  a 
high  state  of  excitement :  not  that  he  was  afraid  of  a  prose- 
cution such  as  he  was  threatened  with.  He  knew  w^ell  that 
the  laws,  such  as  they  are  made,  could  scarcely  reach  him 
and  inflict  on  him  any  punishment.  Of  what  could  he  be 
accused?  Of  not  having  given  in  to  be  recorded  a  legal 
document  intrusted  to  him,  and  for  the  delivery  of  which 
there  is  no  term  fixed  in  the  law  ?  And  what  if  he  answered 
that  he  had  lost  it  ?  Could  they  even  prove  that  he  had 
ever  received  it  ?  He  did  not  see  how  they  could  even  give 
any  proof  of  this.  To  speak  of  prosecuting  him,  therefore, 
was  a  foolish  threat ;  and  he  would  have  been  a  child  to 
be  moved  to  fear  on  this  account.  But  what  struck  him  to 
the  quick  was  the  total  loss  of  the  bright  hope  that  had  so 
long  allured  him,  of  becoming  the  happy  possessor  of  such 
valuable  real  estate.  This  to  him  was  more  bitter  than 
gall ;  he  would  not  be  a  millionaire  as  soon  as  he  expected  ! 
Would  he  be  even  reimbursed  for  the  taxes  and  assessments 
he  had,  so  far,  regularly  paid  ?  In  his  own  judgment,  his 
adversaries  would  be  simpletons  and  fools  to  come  to  him 
with  the  money.  He  could,  it  is  true,  revenge  himself  by 
keeping  the  document,  and  delaying  the  settlement  of  the 
affair.  But  as  no  answer  had  arrived  to  his  second  letter  to 
the  Yan  Buskirks,  it  seemed  very  probable  that  those  gentle- 
men had  preferred  entering  into  negotiations  with  the  attor- 
ney of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  rather  than  follow  his  suggestions. 
He  would,  consequently,  fail  in  this  grand  scheme  ;  after 
having  so  long  hoped  he  would  succeed.  The  interior  feel- 
ings of  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  were  far  from  pleasant ;  yet  he  did 
not  see  what  he  could  do  to  change  the  situation,  and  re- 
store his  fallen  hopes. 

For  a  couple  of  days,  he  had  to  chew  the  bitter  cud  of 
these  reflections,  which  were  still  as  bitter  and  galling  as  at 


486  LOUISA  KIBKBRIDE. 

the  first  moment,  when  he  received  a  note  from  the  district 
attorney,  requesting  him  to  come  to  his  office,  that  evening. 

He  went  armed  with  a  revolver,  in  case  anybody  proposed 
to  arrest  him ;  and  was  surprised  to  find  the  prosecuting 
officer  alone. 

"Mr.  Bauer,"  said  the  gentleman,  "you  refused,  the 
other  day,  to  answer  two  questions  which  my  deputy  ad- 
dressed to  you ;  we  could  call  you  before  a  court  and  oblige 
you  to  answer  them ;  but  we  know  that  the  case  is  such 
that  we  could  not  extort  from  you  the  document  you  keep, 
nor  send  you  to  the  penitentiary  where  you  have  richly 
deserved  to  go.  On  our  side,  we  could  well  wait  for 
the  arrival  of  one  of  the  Messrs.  Yan  Buskirk,  who  vn:otQ 
lately,  he  would  be  in  New  York  early  next  year.  He 
would  certainly  sign  another  deed  in  the  place  of  the  one 
you  have.  But  this  would  delay  several  months  the  fulfill- 
ment of  justice,  and  inconvenience  considerably  the  o^vner 
of  the  property,  who  is  otherwise  poor.  We  make  you  this 
proposal,  giving  you  the  choice  of  the  alternative  :  either 
simply  return  to  Mr.  Wilson  the  paper  which  we  know  you 
have ;  and  there  will  be  no  fuss  made ;  or  expect  directly 
a  summons  from  me  ;  not  so  much  to  send  you  to  jail  as  to 
let  the  whole  of  the  city  of  New  York  know  that  you  have 
attempted  to  rob  a  widow,  and  do  not  deserve  the  confidence 
of  honest  people." 

"Sir?"  .  .  .  exclaimed  Mr.  Bauer,  who  was  boiling  with 
rage. 

But  the  gentleman  would  not  allow  him  to  proceed,  and 
merely  said  :  "  You  have  heard  me.  Take  your  choice,  and 
declare  it  to  me  in  writing  as  soon  as  you  have  made  up 
your  mind."     And  he  left  Mr.  Bauer  alone  in  the  office. 

A  couple  of  days  after  the  dinner  of  the  two  physicians 
with  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  Dr.  McElheran,  going  down  one  fore- 
noon to  the  city,  stopped  at  the  door  of  Dr.  Dillon,  whom 
he  found  at  home.  We  have  not  yet  become  acquainted 
with  the  private  life  of  this  worthy  gentleman,  and  the  happy 
thought  of  the  young  Irish  ^^hysician  to  have  a  moment's 


TWO  FIGURES   VERY  UNLIKE.  487 

talk  with  his  new  friend  may  reveal  to  us  something  of  in- 
terest. There  are  still  in  this  miserable  world  souls  worthy 
of  being  known  and  appreciated,  but  remaining  all  their 
earthly  life  hidden  and  in  obscurity.  Such  was  the  inte- 
rior spirit  of  Dr.  Dillon,  full  of  charity  and  geniality, 
yet  restricted  in  his  sphere  and  destined  apparently  never 
to  be  honored  by  society  as  he  deserved.  He  had  never 
married,  nobody  could  say  why  ;  yet  he  was  beloved  by  all 
the  ladies  with  whom  he  became  acquainted  ;  and  his  good- 
ness of  heart  would,  even  in  his  old  days,  have  bound  to 
him  for  better  and  for  worse  any  rich  widow  to  whom  he 
would  have  proposed  marriage.  All  those  he  went  to  see 
inwardly  thought  he  had  some  object  of  that  kind  in  visit- 
ing them.  His  well-bred  Joviality  attracted  them  so  power- 
fully that  no  other  visitor  ever  pleased  them  as  much  as  good 
old  Dr.  Dillon.  There  is  no  need  of  assuring  our  readers  that 
his  intercourse  with  them  was  always  redolent  with  good 
taste  as  well  as  with  reserve  and  modesty  ;  and  some  of  them 
went  so  far  as  to  express  openly  their  surprise  that  after 
the  longest  tete-d-tite  mtQT\\ew  with  him,  they  never  obtained 
more  than  a  slight  pressing  of  his  hand  when  he  left ;  and 
there  was  never  any  change  in  his  tone,  in  his  smile,  in  his 
smallest  gesture.  He  was  evidently  a  very  mysterious  man, 
although,  in  appearance,  plain-spoken  and  talkative. 

When  yoimg  McElheran  arrived,  he  was  in  his  library, 
but,  at  the  sight  of  his  visitor,  he  closed  his  books,  and  his 
face  bore  instantly  his  usual  genial  smile. 

''You  come  just  in  time,"  he  said  ;  ''  I  was  thinking  of 
you." 

''lam  glad  of  it,"  replied  McElheran;  "and  I  want  in- 
stantly to  know  for  what  purpose  I  came  in  time." 

"For  talking,"  he  said,  "of  the  future  projects  of  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  ;  for  you  do  not  imagine,  I  suppose,  that  in  call- 
ing us  to  dinner,  the  other  day,  she  had  only  in  view  what 
she  said  about  our  medical  visits  to  her  poor." 

"What  other  project  could  she  have?"  inquired  McEl- 
heran. "You  know  her  better  than  I,  and  I  could  not 
imagine  anything  else." 


488  LOUISA  KIRKBJRIDE. 

''"Well,"  remarked  the  old  doctor,  "when  she  was  rich, 
she  annually  distributed  a  large  amount  of  money,  and  thus 
did  a  great  deal  of  good  to  the  poor.  She  has  now  scarcely  a 
penny  to  give  ;  and  I  wonder  how  she  can  live  with  her  two 
girls.  Her  plans  must  consequently  take  quite  a  different 
direction  ;  and  what  direction  could  they  take,  now  chiefly 
that  she  is  a  Catholic,  but  that  of  conventual  life  and  works 
of  mercy  through  religious  associations  ?  You  will  see  that, 
in  less  than  ten  years,  she  will  be  at  the  head  of  a  convent, 
an  abbess,  if  you  please ;  and  Julia  will  be  the  directress 
of  her  novices." 

''You  are  joking,  doctor,"  exclaimed  McElheran,  who 
remembered  the  words  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  said  about  Julia 
becoming  a  Sister  of  Mercy.  "You  are  joking,  doctor; 
and  I  do  not  see  how  Julia  must  necessarily  be  a  nun ;  she 
would  do  much  better,  in  my  opinion,  as  a  mother  of  a 
family,  and  the  wife  of  a  man  whom  she  would  make 
happy.  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  besides,  is  not,  as  far  as  I  know,  a 
Catholic ;  I  all  along  understood  that  she  was  an  Episco- 
palian.    You  said  so  yourself,  the  other  day." 

"  Episcopalian  fiddlesticks !  "  exclaimed,  in  laughing,  the 
old  doctor.  "I  tell  you  that  she  will  never  have  anything 
more  to  do  with  Trinity  Chapel  and  Dr.  Dixon.  I  do  not 
profess  to  know  how  far  she  has  gone,  and  whether  she  has 
actually  joined  the  Catholic  Church  ;  but  I  am  sure  that,  if 
she  has  not  yet,  she  will  not  be  long  before  doing  it,  and 
that  she  has  already  projects  about  convents  and  all  that." 

"I  see,"  remarked  McElheran,  "  a  great  difficulty  in  her 
way,  suggested  even  by  yourself.  As  she  is  too  poor  to 
give  alms,  how  can  she  establish  a  convent  ?  It  takes  money 
for  that." 

"Nonsense!"  replied  Dr.  Dillon.  "Three  women  join 
together ;  they  soon  have  a  dozen  more  applying  for  admis- 
sion. They  all  work,  night  and  day,  and  can  not  only  sup- 
port themselves,  but  also  support  the  poor ;  the  rich  soon 
come  to  their  aid  ;  and,  in  the  twinkle  of  an  eye,  you  have 
a  convent.     But  they  must  be  Catholics  to  succeed  well." 

"But,  doctor,"  remarked  McElheran,  "since  you  know 


rVvO  FIGURES   VERY  UNLIKE.  489 

SO  well  what  Mrs.  Kirkbride  intends  to  do,  you  must  know 
likewise  what  views  she  has  with  respect  to  ourselves ;  for 
it  seems  you  suppose  that  she  entertains  views  of  that 
kind." 

'*  Certainly,"  replied  Dr.  Dillon.  "What  she  wishes  to 
make  of  you,  I  cannot  say.  If  you  were  of  my  age,  and 
remained  a  bachelor,  I  would  put  you  in  the  same  category 
with  myself ;  but,  at  any  moment  you  can  slip  through  her 
fingers,  and,  instead  of  becoming  a  monk,  you  would  marry 
one  of  her  girls ;  that  little  vixen  of  Rosa,  for  instance, 
whom  Mrs.  Kirkbride  will  find  a  great  difficulty  to  train  to 
a  conventual  life." 

''Indeed,  doctor,"  said  McElheran,  ''you  are  a  terrible 
joker,  and  you  wish  evidently  to  amuse  me.  If  you  do  not 
know  what  Mrs.  Kirkbride  intends  to  do  with  me,  because 
I  may  slip  through  her  fingers  ;  hov^r  can  she  hope  to  make 
a  monk  of  you,  since  you  are  not  even  a  Catholic  ?  " 

"  Oh,"  he  exclaimed,  "  she  intends  first  to  make  a  Catho- 
lic of  me." 

"And  will  she  succeed?"  inquired  the  young  physician. 

"It  is  very  possible  she  may,"  said  Dr.  Dillon.  "You 
see,  my  dear  friend,  I  have  passed  all  my  life  with  ladies, 
many  of  them  very  attractive  and  good ;  I  not  only  never 
felt  inclined  to  marry  any  of  them,  but,  even  to  place  my- 
self under  the  influence  of  any  one,  with  the  exception  of 
Mrs.  Kirkbride.  She  has  always  exerted  over  me  a  fascina- 
tion which  I  cannot  explain.  She  is  all  purity  and  good- 
ness; and,  with  her,  my  thoughts  could  not  wander  to 
anything  unworthy  of  her ;  but  w^ere  she  to  tell  me,  '  Dr. 
Dillon,  go  and  drown  yourself,'  I  would  be  sorely  tempted 
to  commit  suicide.  So  that  be  sure  that,  if  the  projects  of 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  are  really  such  as  I  think  they  are,  it  is 
very  likely  that  I  will  end  my  life  not  only  a  Catholic  like 
you,  but  even  a  monk  of  the  severest  cast,  just  to  please 
her." 

"But  this  is  all  nonsense,  doctor,"  observed  McElheran. 
"You  are  not  a  machine,  and  you  have  a  will  of  your 


490  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

*'It  may  be  so,"  replied  Mr.  Dillon.  "But  tliere  is  in 
the  heart  of  that  woman  such  a  treasure  of  goodness  and 
virtue,  that  I  am  altogether  at  her  command,  and  always 
glad  to  do  her  bidding." 

Dr.  Dillon  may  have  presented  the  actual  projects  of  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  in  too  definite  a  shape,  and  attributed  to  her  per- 
sonal plans  of  which  the  good  lady  did  not  even  think.  Yet 
something  unusual  habitually  floated  in  her  imagination 
which  certainly  was  not  altogether  opposed  to  what  the 
good  doctor  thought,  and  of  which  the  sequel  will  give  us 
the  real  scope.  McElheran  left  Dr.  Dillon  with  a  hearty 
shake  of  the  hand,  and  whipped  his  horse  vrith  fury  toward 
Mrs.  Kirkbride' s  house.  He  wished  to  ascertain  something 
positive  about  those  supposed  intentions  of  Julia  with  re- 
spect to  a  nunnery,  which  annoyed  him  a  great  deal  more 
than  he  was  pleased  to  confess  to  any  one. 

When  he  reached  the  place,  he  found  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
absent,  and  Rosa  being  in  the  kitchen,  he  could  enjoy 
a  tete-a-tete  with  Julia,  in  the  parlor.  He  was  somewhat 
ruffled  in  his  temper,  but  the  placid  face  of  the  excellent 
girl  soon  restored  his  usual  tranquillity. 

"The  other  day,"  he  said,  "when  I  came  to  dine  with 
Dr.  Dillon,  I  did  not  find  an  oi^portunity  to  meet  you  alone, 
although  I  wished  it ;  but  I  am  glad  to  be  more  lucky  to- 
day. I  thought,  dear  Julia,  that  your  intimacy  with  the 
lady  of  the  house  was  such  that  you  had  no  secret  whatever 
for  her,  and  that  everything  of  importance  which  happened 
to  you,  and  chiefly  your  plans  for  the  future,  Avere  alto- 
gether in  her  possession.  How  is  it  that  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
imagines — let  me  be  plain  with  you — that  your  wishes  are 
to  become  a  Sister  of  Mercy  \  Had  you  ever  such  an  inten- 
tion, my  dear,  and  did  I  place  myself  between  you  and  God  ? 
I  would  not  for  anything  in  the  world,  turn  you  away  from 
what  we  Catholics  call  '  the  better  part,'  although  it  would 
indeed  render  my  life  sad  and  dreary  ;  and  I  wish  you  to  be 
explicit  on  the  subject,  in  order  that  I  may  know  directly 
my  fate,  and  shape  my  projects  accordingly." 

"This  is  indeed  plain  talldng,"  rei)lied  Julia,  *^and  I 


TWO  FIGURES   VERT  UNLIKE.  491 

tliank  yon  for  it.  Mrs.  Kirkbride  knows  certainly  all  my 
thonglits,  when  they  are  fully  formed,  and  when  they  have 
taken  a  definite  shape  ;  and  I  would  be  very  ungrateful  to 
act  otherwise.  But  I  do  not  think  it  worth  w^hile  to  trouble 
her  with  every  little  ripple  which  disturbs  for  a  moment  the 
smooth  surface  of  our  waters.  I  have  not  yet  said  a  word  to 
her  of  what  happened  between  you  and  me,  because,  on  ac- 
count of  the  difficulty  which  exists  for  the  fulfillment  of 
your  desire,  the  accomplishment  of  it  is  yet  very  problem- 
atical, in  my  eyes.  If  ever  there  is  more  probability  of  suc- 
cess, she  will  be  the  first  to  know  it.  As  to  what  she  may 
have  said  of  my  desire  to  be  a  Sister  of  Mercy,  it  is  not  from 
any  word  of  mine  that  she  has  conjectured  it.  But  it  may 
be  that,  as  she  is  on  the  point  of  being  received  in  our 
Holy  Church,  she  may  herself  entertain  the  idea  of  a  reli- 
gious life,  and  she  may  think  that,  in  such  a  case  as  this,  I 
would  follow  her ;  and  indeed,  had  I  made  no  other  engage- 
ment, I  would  certainly  do  so.  But  this,  after  all,  is  only 
a  dream.  I  never  yet  thought  of  forming  projects  of  life  for 
myself.  During  the  life  of  my  dear  mother,  I  could  not  do 
so  in  conscience,  as  my  cares  were  due  to  her ;  since  her 
death  Mrs.  Kirkbride  has  replaced  my  mother ;  and  it  was 
the  wish  of  my  father  himself,  as  w^ell  as  the  promptings  of 
my  own  heart,  which  placed  me  in  the  position  where  you 
found  me  ;  and  you  know  that  we  Catholics  call  this  the 
will  of  God,  which  it  is  our  duty  to  do  always.  In  these  few 
words  of  explanation,  you  have,  my  dear  sir,  everthing  that  I 
know  about  it.  My  life  is  in  the  hand  of  God,  and  what  I 
shall  be  depends  entirely  on  his  Holy  Providence." 

At  this  moment,  McElheran  would  have  tenderly  em- 
braced Julia,  had  he  not  considered  her  as  too  holy  a  person 
to  be  treated  with  familiarity.  He  looked  on  her  with  a  real 
reverence,  and  contented  himself  with  taking  her  hand  and 
kissing  it. 

^'  I  thank  you  from  my  heart,"  he  said,  "for  speaking  as 
clearly  as  you  did.  The  conclusion  of  the  whole  is  that  you 
are  kept  in  suspense  by  these  foolish  relatives  of  mine. 
I  intend  directly  to  bring  them  to  their  senses  ;  and  then  I 


492  LOUISA  KIJRKBRIDE. 

shall  possess  yon.  You  are  too  precious  a  treasure  to  escape 
me ;  I  must  have  you  at  every  possible  sacrifice ;  unless, 
indeed,  God  wants  yoii  entirely  for  Himself,  and  He  has  a 
better  right  to  you  than  I  can  have." 

Saying  this,  he  left  the  room,  and  was  soon  on  his  way  to 
the  city. 

Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  had  had  time  to  come  to  a  decision  on 
the  proposal  made  him  so  coolly  by  the  district  attorney ; 
but  it  must  be  said  that  it  was  a  hard  task  to  decide.  What 
a  frightful  alternative,  after  all  his  pleasant  dreams  !  Either 
to  be  denounced  to  the  world  as  a  thief  intending  to  defraud 
a  poor  widow,  or  to  renounce  the  alluring  hope  of  at  once 
enriching  himself,  and  of  becoming  one  of  the  great  real- 
estate  owners  of  New  York  !  Yet  the  alternative  was  plain  ; 
the  district  attorney  had  spoken  the  language  of  reason, 
and  had  not  treated  him  like  a  child,  by  threatening  him 
with  the  i)enitentiary,  where  he  could  not  send  him.  If,  by 
choosing  the  second  part  of  the  proposal,  Mr.  Bauer  could 
have  flattered  himself  with  grasping  the  coveted  prize,  he 
might  desx^ise  public  opinion,  and  not  care  in  the  least  what 
men  might  think  of  him.  Being  then  a  millionaire,  he  would 
consider  himself  as  above  the  contempt  of  honest  men,  sure 
as  he  would  be  of  having  many  admirers  among  the  wor- 
shipers of  Mammon,  who  naturally  fall  at  the  feet  of  a 
scoundrel  when  he  is  ''clad  in  purple  and  fine  linen,"  and 
can  give  grand  dinners  out  of  his  ill-gotten  profits.  But  he 
was  sensible  enough  to  know  that  this  could  not  be  the  case 
with  him.  If  lie  did  not  give  back  the  document  he  pos- 
sessed, it  would  remain  a  mere  piece  of  x>aper  in  his  hands  ; 
and,  even  though  the  real  owner  of  the  property  could  not 
come  to  her  own  directly,  and  would  have  to  await  the  ar- 
rival of  one  of  the  Yan  Buskirks,  Mr.  E.  Bauer  could  not 
derive  any  substantial  benefit  from  it,  and  would  have  to 
be  satisfied  with  the  paltry  result  of  mean  revenge.  Mean- 
while, the  sums  he  had  already  paid  for  assessments  and 
taxes,  which  were  not  as  yet  balanced  by  any  revenue, 
would  be  a  dead  loss  for  him,  and  indeed  be  too  dear  a  price 


TWO  FIGURES   VERT  UNLIKE.  493 

for  the  satisfaction  lie  might  feel  in  doing  an  injury  to  the 
lady.  On  the  other  side,  should  he  lay  aside  false  shame, 
and  declare  openly  he  could  find  the  deed  they  were  look- 
ing for,  and  give  it  at  last  to  be  recorded,  not  only  he  could 
claim  reimbursement  for  what  he  had  paid,  but  perhaps  he 
might  obtain  a  fine  bonus  for  placing  his  adversaries  in  im- 
mediate possession  of  their  rights. 

These  were  the  thoughts  which  formed  the  elements  of  his 
decision.  But,  to  arrive  at  a  peaceful  state  of  mind  on  the 
subject,  he  had  to  wade,  long  days  and  nights,  through  the 
mire  of  bitter  feelings,  rendered  more  acute  by  the  uncer- 
tainty of  many  mysteries  which  he  could  not  account  for. 
How  were  the  district  attorney  and  his  deputy  in  possession 
of  secrets  which  he  thought  had  remained  concealed  in  his 
own  breast  ?  How  did  they  know  so  positively  that  he  had 
been  the  agent  of  Mr.  Kirkbride,  and  had,  on  this  account, 
received  the  deed  which  was  the  cause  of  so  much  trouble  ? 
How  did  they  learn  that  he  had  written  to  the  Yan  Bus- 
kirks,  and  how  could  they  speak  so  positively  of  it  ?  He 
had  been,  therefore,  wrong  in  supposing  that  no  one,  except 
himself,  could  know  more  on  the  subject  than  young  Frede- 
rick KMvbride  and  John,  his  valet,  had  ever  been  acquainted 
with.  He  compared  in  his  mind  the  attitude  of  that  vulgar 
ruffian,  revolver  in  hand,  on  that  lonely  road  at  night,  with 
the  coolness  of  the  magistrate,  who  had  no  other  weapon 
but  his  commanding  voice,  and  he  was  obliged  to  confess 
that  he  had,  at  last,  found  his  master. 

He  knew  that,  if  he  delayed  too  long,  a  summons  would 
come,  which  would  give  publicity  to  the  whole  affair.  He 
did  not  wait  for  it,  and  penned  the  following  short  and 
rather  obscure  note:  ''Sir — According  to  your  request,  I 
am  prepared  to  give  to  your  questions  answers  which  may 
perhaps  satisfy  you.  Please  appoint  a  place  and  time  of 
meeting.     Yours,  respectfully,     Ernst  Bauer." 

A  response  to  this  note  was  immediately  dispatched,  de- 
signating eight  o'clock  p.m.  as  the  time,  and  the  district 
attorney's  office  as  the  place,  where  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  would 
do  well  to  appear.    He  was  faithful  to  the  summons,  but 


494  LOUISA  KUtKBRIDE. 

was  somewhat  surprised  to  find,  instead  of  the  prosecuting 
officer,  only  his  deputy,  Mr.  C.  O' Byrne,  and  Mr.  AY.  Wil- 
son, waiting  for  him  in  the  appointed  room.  Mr.  0' Byrne 
spoke  first. 

'^I  understand,  sir,  that  you  bring  us  the  deed  intrusted 
to  you  by  Mr.  Kirkbride  ? " 

"  I  may  find  it  for  you,"  replied  Mr.  Bauer,  ''if  some  pre- 
vious agreement  is  entered  into  between  you  and  me." 

''And  what  is  the  previous  agreement  which  you  would 
propose  ?'•'  answered  the  first  gentleman. 

"First,"  said  Mr.  Bauer,  " it  is  but  just  that,  on  the  de- 
livery of  the  deed,  the  paid  assessments  and  taxes  should 
be  immediately  refunded." 

"If  I  were  alone  concerned  in  this  trcfnsaction,"  replied 
O' Byrne,  "I  would  not  consent  to  it,  to  punish  you  for 
your  want  of  integrity  ;  but  Mr.  Wilson,  here,  has  the  inte- 
rests of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  in  charge.     Let  him  answer  you." 

"We  have  not,"  said  that  gentleman,  "any  feeling  of 
revenge  for  the  evil  intended  us,  and  we  are  not  public  prose- 
cutors of  bad  intentions.  The  property,  besides,  must  bear 
its  own  charges.  I  promise  that,  on  the  delivery  of  the 
deed,  with  the  proper  vouchers  for  what  has  been  paid 
in  assessments  and  taxes,  a  check  will  be  given  for  the 
amount." 

"This  must  satisfy  you,  sir,"  remarked  Mr.  O' Byrne. 
"And,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  more  than  you  could  expect, 
and  than  you  would  grant  yourself,  if  our  situations  were 
exchanged." 

"Yet,"  interposed  Mr.  Bauer,  "the  proposed  agreement 
should  include  a  further  clause :  '  That,  on  account  of  the 
care  taken  of  the  property,  and,  as  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  a  valuable  prospective  agency,  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  be  handed  on  the  same  day  of  delivery,  to  the  per- 
son who  will  return  the  deed.'  " 

"Twenty-five  thousand  fiddlesticks!"  exclaimed  Mr.  C. 
O' Byrne.  "This  would  be  'compounding  felony,'  and  I 
will  never  be  guilty  of  such  a  crime.  You  shall  not  have  a 
penny  of  compensation^  sir ;  I  answer  this,  in  the  name  of 


TWO  FIGURES   VERY  UNLIKE.  495 

the  district  attorney,  and  independently  of  what  Mr.  W. 
Wilson  himself  would  do,  if  legal  authority  had  not  inter- 
posed. His  consent  to  your  iirst  condition  is  too  good  for 
you  ;  you  shall  not  have  the  benefit  of  the  second." 

This  firmness  set  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  a  thinking.  That 
young  deputy  spoke  not  only  as  having  authority,  but 
likeAvise  as  possessing  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  whole 
affair.  The  piercing  eye  of  Mr.  0' Byrne  appeared  to  him 
penetrating  into  the  inmost  recesses  of  his  guilty  heart, 
and  he  was  cowed  down  by  the  superiority  which  plain 
honesty  always  enjoys  over  cunning  and  vile  scheming.  He 
asked,  however,  for  one  day's  delay  to  reflect  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

*'Not  a  moment  more,"  exclaimed  the  young  deputy  dis- 
trict attorney.  ' '  I  suppose  you  have  the  papers  with  you  ; 
lay  them  on  this  table.  Mr.  Wilson  is  ready  to  give  you 
his  check  for  the  amount  of  your  vouchers ;  and,  as  it  is 
proper  there  should  be  as  many  witnesses  to  the  transaction 
as  can  be,  the  district  attorney  himself  will  be  present 
directly,  so  that  there  can  be  no  more  imposition  and  de- 
ceit." 

The  thing  was  done  as  dictated  by  Mr.  C.  0' Byrne  ;  and 
this  very  night,  he,  with  Mr.  Wilson,  threw  himself  into  a 
hack  and  went  to  apprise  Mrs.  Kirkbride  that  she  was  no 
more  reduced  to  penury,  but  could  follow  the  promptings 
of  her  heart  in  distributing  charity  around  her. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

IlfTEEESTINa  INTEEVIEW  BETWEEN"  MES.  LOUISA  KIEKBEIDE 
AND  HI 
DINNEE 


AND  HEE  ''two   DAUGHTEES,"  FOLLOWED  BY  A  LIVELY 


The  reader  must  render  to  himself  a  complete  account  of 
the  total  change  effected  in  the  worldly  prosjDects  of  our 
most  venerable  lady,  by  the  news  unexpectedly  brought  her 
by  O' Byrne  and  Wilson.  The  ownership  of  three  large 
blocks,  besides  a  considerable  gore  of  land,  situated  in  a 
still  forlorn  district,  it  is  true,  but  on  the  point  of  rising 
immensely  in  value,  suddenly  made  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  a 
rich  woman  again.  Her  position,  therefore,  was  instantly 
reversed.  What  she  could  not  do  yesterday,  she  is  fully 
able  to  do  to-day.  But  as  far  as  her  action  was  synony- 
mous with  almsgiving,  the  meaning,  therefore,  is  that,  yes- 
terday, she  had  nothing  to  give  away ;  and,  to-day,  she  can 
dispense  her  gifts  liberally.  By  disposing  directly  of  a 
small  slice  of  her  new  jDroperty — the  gore,  for  instance,  out 
of  three  blocks — she  would  have  a  round  sum  in  hand  to 
begin  with,  at  once.  By  waiting  some  time,  before  dis- 
posing of  a  part  of  the  remainder,  she  would  receive  such 
high  prices  for  every  parcel  of  it,  that  all  her  benevolent 
intentions,  whatever  they  might  be,  would  find  ample  means 
for  their  fulfillment.  There  is  no  concealing  the  fact,  there- 
fore, that  this  was  a  most  complete  revolution  in  her  cir- 
cumstances. The  reader  may  be  at  first  staggered,  and 
scarcely  able  to  form  a  just  conception  of  it.  But  he  must 
be  brought  to  it,  and  understand  well  all  the  consequences, 
for  the  lady,  of  the  news  conveyed  to  her  by  her  two 

49G 


THE  TWO  DAUGHTERS.  497 

friends.  It  was  the  same  as  telling  her:  ^'Yesterday,  you 
were  little  '  Red  Hood,'  living  in  a  hut,  with  scarcely  bread 
enough  to  satisfy  your  hunger.  But  a  good  fairy  has  in- 
terposed ;  you  are  now  a  princess,  and  we  come  to  take  you 
to  the  royal  palace  prepared  for  you."  And,  as  her  heart 
was  burning  with  an  ardent  desire — not  to  enjoy  personally 
the  usual  advantages  of  wealth,  and  voraciously  devour  the 
feast  spread  before  her — but  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  clothe 
the  naked,  to  console  the  afflicted,  etc.,  she  threw  herself, 
at  once,  into  the  run  of  her  new  position,  and  began  to  act 
in  a  completely  different  manner  from  what  she  did  the 
previous  day.  This  the  reader  must  understand  fully,  not 
to  be  bewildered  by  what  he  is  going  presently  to  see. 

The  change,  besides,  was  brought  on  so  naturally,  though 
suddenly,  that  it  made  no  noise  whatever ;  and  people  might 
be  induced  to  believe  that  it  was  an  affair  of  legerdemain, 
which  explains  nothing,  but  bewilders  completely.  Some, 
in  consequence,  may  imagine  that  this  denouement  gives 
more  than  one  can  expect ;  but  in  this  they  are  mistaken. 
All  the  steps  taken,  without  any  noise,  have  been  well 
marked  to  show  the  natural  and  simple  progress  of  those 
extraordinary  events.  Who  can  find  fault  with  any  of  the 
details  previously  given  ?  They  were,  in  fact,  the  outcom- 
ing  incidents  of  a  true  story,  though  the  gentle  current  of 
the  stream  remained  almost  unperceived  ;  and  as  in  ordinary 
life  the  facts  of  to-day  are  so  naturally  the  sequel  of  those 
of  yesterday,  that  no  one  has  time  and  inclination  to  look 
for  the  link ;  still  the  link  exists,  and  wdll  soon  be  per- 
ceived if  any  one  takes  the  trouble  of  looking  curiously  for 
it ;  so  it  was  in  this  case,  and  it  is  proper  to  look  at  it. 

See  how  the  natural  cunning  of  a  rascal  brought  to  the 
late  Mr.  Kirkbride  the  proposal  of  a  heavy  purchase,  Just 
at  the  moment  he  was  starting  for  the  north.  See  how 
easily,  and  by  what  apparently  artless  means,  the  gentle- 
man was  induced  to  conclude  the  bargain.  Pay  strict  at- 
tention to  the  shrewdness  of  the  rogue,  very  natural  in  a 
rogue  certainly,  by  which  he  so  nearly  succeeded  in  appro- 
priating to  himself  what  did  not  belong  to  him.  As  to  the 
32 


498  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

various  circumstances  by  wliicli  the  intended  tlieft  was  not 
discovered  by  yonng  Frederick,  wlio  could  not  thus  lose  this 
last  piece  of  property  on  Black  Friday,  everybody  must  ad- 
mit that  things  of  the  kind  have  happened  before,  and  will 
still  happen,  in  the  course  of  time.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  the  way  in  which  the  cunning  of  a  knave  was  overreached 
by  the  good  sense  and  firmness  of  two  honest  men ;  and 
thus  every  detail  is  proved  to  have  taken  place  as  naturally 
as  one's  heart  could  desire. 

People  may  think  that  this  is  said  here  only  to  satisfy 
hypercritics,  who  have  always  some  reason  or  other  to  find 
fault  with  the  works  of  fiction,  which  they  condescend  to 
read.  But  there  is  a  far  better  motive  for  saying  it  before 
resuming  the  thread  of  the  narrative.  It  is  the  more  highly 
important  view  of  impressing  the  reader  with  the  idea  of 
the  invisible  workings  of  Divine  Providence,  when  he  con- 
templates the  remarkable  occurrences  recorded  in  this  most 
truthful  story.  Who  can  then  refuse  to  admit  the  great 
truth  that  God  interferes  in  human  affairs,  and  leads  every- 
thing to  a  good  end,  in  spite  of  devils  and  bad  men? 
God  does  not  always  use  his  thunder  in  order  to  punish 
evil  and  reduce  to  impotency  the  wicked  who  do  not  believe 
in  him.  He  often  despises  them  too  much  to  make  so  much 
fuss  about  them  ;  and  as  the  giant  Goliath  was  killed  by  a 
small  pebble  from  the  sling  of  David,  so  the  cunning  Ernst 
Bauer  saw  his  admirable  plans  defeated  by  the  bold  lan- 
guage of  a  simple  and  scarcely  educated  youth.  There  is 
not  a  single  circumstance  of  the  eventful  story  which  does 
not  show  the  finger  of  God.  We  have,  indeed,  in  the  whole 
narrative,  a  perfect  exemplification  of  what  St.  Paul  says 
when  he  asserts  that  God  knows  how  to  draw  good  from  evil. 

Was  there,  in  fact,  a  fitter  object  on  earth  for  God  him- 
self to  exert  his  power  than  on  the  gentle  lady,  who  at  this 
moment  feels  the  deepest  gratitude  for  the  unexpected 
change  in  her  position?  Although  she  had  not  the  happi- 
ness of  being  born  in  the  bosom,  and  brought  up  on  the 
knees  of  mother  Church,  she  was  precisely  at  this  moment 
hastening  to  her  embrace,  and  giving  herself  up  altogether 


THE  TWO  DAUGHTERS.  499 

to  her  direction.  And  the  very  way  her  return  to  affluence 
was  effected,  was  in  accordance  with  the  gentleness  of  her 
disposition.  A  word  has  just  been  said  of  the  thunder  of 
God.  Not  for  her  was  it  to  belch  forth  canister  and  grape  ; 
though  God  occasionally  uses  these  means  of  destruction. 
But  had  he  wished  to  do  so,  on  this  occasion,  she  would 
have  deprecated,  ^^ith  tears  in  her  eyes,  and  sobs  in  her 
bosom,  the  fearful  necessity.  She  would  have  let  down  her 
head  or  rather  fallen  on  her  knees  to  ask,  as  the  greatest 
favor,  forgiveness  for  her  enemies.  Fortunately,  there  was 
nothing  of  the  kind  intended  by  the  Providence  of  God  at 
this  moment.  If  Mr.  Ernst  Bauer  was  obliged  to  restore  to 
her  what  she  had  a  right  to,  he  was  not,  on  this  account, 
reduced  to  penury  and  want.  He  had  yet  more  than  he 
deserved  of  the  goods  of  this  world.  In  fact,  the  thorough 
revolution  in  the  circumstances  of  the  lady  had  happened 
without  any  commotion  whatever ;  and  although  she  was 
on  the  eve  of  a  completely  different  state  of  life,  nobody 
had  been  disturbed  in  his  just  and  fair  aspirations. 

These  reflections  were  necessary  to  link  the  past  part  of 
our  story  with  what  is  just  going  to  be  described  ;  and,  to 
begin,  it  happened  that  the  day  on  which  Mr.  Wilson  and 
Mr.  C.  O' Byrne  came  to  give  the  good  news  to  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride  was  the  first  of  October.  The  lady  knew  that  Julia 
and  Rosa  had  gone  to  church  that  afternoon,  and  were  pre- 
paring to  go  to  Mass  the  following  morning,  and  receive 
holy  communion,  as  it  was  to  be  the  festival  of  the  Holy 
Angels.  When  the  two  gentlemen  had  departed,  she  called 
the  girls  together  to  her  room  and  told  them  : 

'*!  will  go  with  you  to  church,  to-morrow  morning,  my 
dear  children  ;  and  although  I  cannot  yet  share  in  all  your 
happiness,  since,  for  very  good  reasons,  my  baptism  and  re- 
ception into  the  church  have  been  delayed,  still  I  will  pray 
with  you,  and  I  beg  of  you  to  pray  to  God  ardently  for 
some  object  of  my  own  which  I  intend  to  communicate  to 
you  when  we  return." 

The  three  prayed,  therefore,  most  fervently  this  morning 
of  the  Holy  Angels  ;  and  when  they  came  back  home  and 


500  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

had  taken  their  simple  breakfast,  Julia  and  Rosa  were 
most  curious  to  know  what  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  to  say. 
She  took  them  to  her  room,  and  began  to  talk : 

' '  The  visit  I  received  last  evening,  my  dear  children,  was 
to  announce  to  me  that  I  am  again  rich,  and  I  am  glad  of  it 
for  your  sakes  principally,  as  you  have  a  right  to  have  a 
share  in  my  good  luck.  Yet  it  disturbs  my  plans  some- 
what— for  I  had  plans,  I  assure  you — and  to  know  how  far 
I  can  carry  them  out,  I  must  know  from  you  what  you  in- 
tend to  do  when  I  am  able  again  to  have  servants,  and  you 
yourselves  are  placed  in  an  independent  position.  What 
will  you  do,  Eosa,  since  I  understand  that  you  are  soon  to 
marry  ;  when  is  it  that  you  leave  me  ? " 

"Indeed,  madam,"  exclaimed  the  girl,  "your  question 
astonishes  me.  Do  you  want  to  get  rid  of  me  ?  Have  I  done 
anything  to  displease  you  ?  It  would  break  my  heart  if  it 
were  so." 

"Nothing  of  the  kind,  my  dear  child,"  replied  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  ;  "  but  when  you  are  married  you  do  not  intend, 
I  suppose,  to  cook  my  meals  any  more  ;  and  I  must  replace 
you,  you  see.  I  will  be  happy,  indeed,  if  I  can  find  another 
little  cook  as  good  as  you." 

"To  tell  you  the  truth,"  ejaculated  Eosa,  "all  this  was 
already  arranged  between  my  future  husband  and  myself. 
As  the  Froment  family  are  to  leave  next  month — they  an- 
nounced it  to  you  lately,  and  you  were  afraid  of  not  finding 
lodgers  as  good  as  they  are — Mr.  Cornelius  O'B^n^ne  has 
already  pre-engaged  their  apartments  when  they  leave.  I 
am  to  cook  both  for  you  and  my  husband  until  some  other 
arrangement  can  be  made ;  and  in  any  event,  I  am  not  to 
quit  your  house  and  your  service.  It  would  kill  me,  my 
dear  madam,  to  live  far  from  you.  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne 
knows  this  my  thought  and  fully  approves  it.  He  says  that 
you  are  my  mother,  and  he  will  be  proud  to  have  you  for 
his  mother-in-law  ;  and  although  many  young  married  men 
do  not  like  to  live  under  the  same  roof  with  their  mother- 
in-law,  and  perhaps  the  greater  number  of  girls  like  mar- 
riage so  much  chiefly  because  it  frees  them  from  the  con- 


THE  TWO  DAUGHTERS.  501 

trol  of  their  motlier,  it  cannot  be  so  with  yon.  Yon  are 
more  necessary  to  us  than  we  have  ever  been  to  yon  ;  rich 
or  poor  it  is  the  same  ;  we  must  live  together  or  there  can 
be  no  happiness  for  ns,  for  me  at  least."  And  saying  this, 
the  good  child,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  threw  herself  on  the 
neck  of  the  lady  and  sobbed  aloud. 

"  I  am  happy,  indeed,  to  hear  you,  my  dear  child,"  said 
Mrs.  Kirkbride,  ' '  and  I  see,  with  great  pleasure,  that  my 
plans  need  only  be  modified,  not  given  up." 

''What  were  those  plans  ?  do  tell  us,"  exclaimed  Eosa, 
all  full  of  joy. 

"Not  before  Julia  has  spoken,"  replied  Mrs.  Kirkbride. 

"You  know  already,  madam,  what  I  have  to  say,"  re- 
plied the  girl.  "  You  have  adopted  me  for  your  daughter, 
and  I  must  remain  so,  unless  you  discard  me  ;  and  this,  in- 
deed, would  be  for  me  a  sorrowful  blow." 

"  But  you  must  have  some  projects  of  your  own,  child," 
observed  the  lady,  "and  now  that  I  am  no  longer  poor, 
should  you  even  leave  me  to  follow  them,  I  cannot  blame 
you,  and  will  continue  to  love  you  dearly  and  be  thankful 
to  you  for  your  great  kindness  to  me." 

"Whatever  may  be  my  own  projects,"  interposed  Julia, 
"they  must  necessarily  be  so  shaped  as  not  to  separate  me 
from  you ;  what  Rosa  just  said  is  also  my  determination. 
I  intend  to  continue  to  live  with  you  as  long  as  you  permit 
me  to  do  so. 

"Tliank  God,  the  matter  is  as  I  wished,"  exclaimed  with 
joy  Mrs.  Kirkbride;  "my  plans  can  be  fairly  carried  out, 
and  better,  perhaps,  than  I  intended.  Please  listen  now  to 
them,  my  dear  children,  and  tell  me  if  you  approve  them." 

Then  the  lady  began  to  speak  at  length  of  a  project  she 
had  entertained  for  several  months,  and  almost  matured  in 
her  interior  communications  with  God.  It  was  not  exactly 
what  Dr.  Dillon  supposed,  but  it  came,  after  all,  to  the 
same,  as  far,  at  least,  as  the  people  of  the  neighborhood 
were  concerned.  It  was  nothing  else  than  to  supply  the 
numerous  colony  around  her  with  all  the  means  which  reli- 
f^ion  confers  for  this  life  and  the  next,  and  which  the  Church 


502  LOUISA  KmKBRIDE. 

knows  a  great  deal  better  how  to  secure  than  what  is  called 
civilization. 

She  intended  first  to  establish  schools  for  the  giiis  of  the 
neighborhood  on  the  West  Side,  who  were  almost  entirely 
neglected,  and  of  course  she  was  to  be  their  school-mistress 
with  Julia  ;  she  was  to  have  the  poor  attended  during  sick- 
ness by  her  own  physicians,  for  she  had  two  at  her  dis- 
posal, and  the  keen  old  gentleman,  Dr.  Dillon,  had  rightly 
suspected  it ;  she  wanted  all  the  difficulties  among  her 
neighbors  to  be  settled  by  arbitration ;  a  good  and  honest 
lawyer  was  needed  for  this  purpose,  and  she  hojDed  to  se- 
cure the  services  of  Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne.  In  her  first 
plan,  no  money  was  supposed  to  be  at  her  disposal,  and  she 
thought  it  possible  to  do  without  it,  but  now  that  she  was 
going  to  have  some  means  of  her  o\vn,  they  would  be  a 
greater  help,  and  she  might  destine  the  real  estate  coming 
to  her  as  the  ground  plan  of  an  establishment  which  was 
perhaps  to  exist  after  her,  and  which  would  be  at  the 
same  time  religious,  industrial,  educational,  and  benevolent. 
"  Irish  village  "  was  to  profit  by  all  these  projects ;  and  the 
advantages  of  the  place  attracting  other  people,  she  figured 
to  herself  a  large  town  starting  up  into  existence,  in  the 
wilds  of  the  West  Side  of  the  Central  Park,  and  giving  to 
the  bewildered  citizens  of  all  races,  swarming  all  around, 
the  idea  of  what  a  single  soul  full  of  love  and  deep  religion 
can  do  for  other  peo2:)le. 

"Now,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  in  conclusion,  "I  will  soon 
be  able  to  begin,  with  the  help  of  both  of  you,  on  one  side, 
and  of  Mr.  McElheran  and  Dr.  Dillon  on  the  other  ;  but  in 
order  to  be  more  precise  about  my  projects,  I  must  have 
a  private  conversation  with  Julia.  Go,  therefore,  to  the 
kitchen,  Rosa,  since  you  wish  to  continue  to  be  our  cook ; 
and  for  our  dinner,  to-day,  spend  double  the  usual  amount, 
for  we  must  have  a  kind  of  feast  to  celebrate  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  new  era." 

As  soon  as  Julia  was  alone : 

"Tell  me,"  said  the  lady,  "what  you  intend  to  do,  with- 
out leaving  the  house,  and  with  the  understanding  that  we 


THE  TWO  DAUGHTERS.  503 


are  not  to  be  separated.  I  suppose  you  do  not  intend  to 
marry  ;  do  you  wish  to  enter  a  nunnery  as  soon  as  God 
leaves  you  free  to  do  it  ? " 

Then  the  giii  could  not  remain  silent  any  longer.  She 
related  to  the  lady  what  had  taken  place  between  her  and 
Dr.  McElheran ;  what  was  the  real  obstacle  to  their  mar- 
riage, and  the  great  improbability  of  the  foolish  relations  of 
the  young  doctor  ever  giving  way  and  consentiog  to  his 
union  with  a  poor  girl. 

"This  suits  me  admirably,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Kirkbride ; 
"when  I  have  settled  on  you,  as  I  intended,  one-third  of 
the  property,  you  will  be  an  heiress,  for  I  understand  that 
by  merely  keeping  it,  for  a  few  years,  it  will  be  worth  mil- 
lions. Thus  you  can  marry  Mr.  McElheran.  With  one- 
third  of  it  I  shall  have  enough  for  all  my  projects  ;  the 
second  third  will  thus  be  the  marriage  portion  of  Mrs.  Julia 
McElheran,  and  the  last  one  will  enable  Mrs.  Rosa  0' Byrne 
to  tyrannize  over  Mr.  Cornelius,  as  titled  ladies  do  over 
their  untitled  husbands.  It  will  be  all  around  an  admira- 
ble arrangement.  And  I  see  the  possibility  of  giving  to  the 
whole  such  a  shape  that  we  will  all  live  together  and  form  a 
vast  establishment,  where  the  majority  will  be  Irish.  Who 
knows  whether  I  will  not,  by  and  by,  be  adopted  by  one  of 
your  clans,  and  no  objections  be  made  to  me,  on  account  of 
my  English  origin  ? " 

When  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  finished  this  plain  statement, 
she  told  Julia  to  go  to  her  usual  occupations,  until  dinner 
time,  and  she  herself  withdrew  to  her  room.  But  she  had 
scarcely  reached  it,  when  Rosa  came  up,  in  a  great  hurry, 
and  full  of  mischievous  glee,  to  tell  her  that  Dr.  Dillon  was 
below,  who  wished  to  see  her  for  a  moment. 

"Would  she  not  do  well  to  keep  him  for  dinner,  after 
which,  the  diploma,  that  Julia  had  already  indited,  could 
be  delivered  to  him  with  great  ceremony  ? " 

"jN'othing  could  be  better  than  this  arrangement,"  said 
the  lady.     "  Send  him  up  immediately." 

It  turned  out  that  the  good  old  doctor  had  merely  called 
to  say,  that  one  of  the  iDatients  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  would 


504  LOUISA  KIBKBRIBE. 

want,  in  the  afternoon,  the  care  of  one  of  her  '^  daughters." 
It  was  usual  for  him  to  do  so,  when  charity  required  it. 

"Julia  herself  will  certainly  go,"  replied  the  lady,  on 
receiving  the  address  of  the  sick  woman.  "But  I  wish  you 
to  dine  with  us,  to-day,  at  one  o'clock.  It  is  an  early  hour ; 
I  know,  however,  that  your  stomach  is  always  ready.  There 
is  yet  plenty  of  time  for  you  to  attend  to  any  business  you 
may  have  on  hand  ;  but  do  not  fail  to  bring  Mr.  McElheran 
with  you.  Should  he  be  inconvenienced,  on  account  of  the 
impossibility  for  him  to  eat  dinner  so  early,  tell  him  he 
will  not  be  required  to  dine,  unless  he  wishes ;  but  I  want 
his  presence  with  yours." 

This  was  sure  to  bring  back  the  old  doctor,  by  exciting 
his  curiosity.  His  mind  went  through  a  maze  of  conjec- 
tures, which  it  is  useless  for  us  to  detail.  He  knew  nothing 
of  tlie  happy  change  in  the  affairs  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  ;  and  it 
was  not  yet  her  intention  to  let  anybody  know  it,  excei^t 
her  two  girls.  We  must,  consequently,  let  him  undertake 
in  his  imagination  the  absolutely  impossible  task  of  finding 
out  what  his  lady  friend  kept  in  store  for  him.  He  came 
back  in  time,  with  Mr.  McElheran,  whom  he  tried  on  the 
way  to  enlighten  with  a  thousand  sux^positions  as  to  what 
they  were  going  to  hear.  When  they  arrived,  however, 
they  neither  heard  nor  saw  anything  extraordinary,  and, 
after  waiting  a  few  minutes,  they  were  introdaced  into  the 
little  dining-room,  in  the  basement,  near  the  kitchen. 

As  the  door  between  the  two  rooms  was  open,  they  could 
occasionally  have  a  peep  at  Rosa,  who  was  very  busy  with 
her  dishes ;  still  more  than  once  she  herself  stole  a  glance  or 
two  in  the  direction  of  the  dining-room ;  and  every  time 
her  eyes  fell  on  Dr.  Dillon,  she  smiled  mischievously,  as 
much  as  to  say :   "I  have  you  !  " 

The  dinner  was  certainly  a  very  different  affair  from  the 
one  the  two  gentlemen  had  partaken  of,  a  week  or  two  pre- 
vious. Not  only  had  Rosa  spent  double  the  usual  allow- 
ance, according  to  the  direction  of  the  lady,  but  not  being 
bound  by  the  strict  bonds  of  religious  obedience,  she  had 
gone  far  beyond  the  assigned  limit.     The  lady  herself  was 


THE  TWO  DAUGHTERS,  505 

astonished,  after  a  while,  to  see  so  many  dishes  coming  to 
the  table,  brought  in  by  Julia.  But  she  would  have,  by 
and  by,  a  good  reason  to  give  to  her  guests  ;  and  so  she  did 
not  intend  to  scold  Rosa  too  much  afterward.  But  during 
the  meal,  as  nothing  could  be  said  yet  of  the  object  of  the 
meeting,  which  was  to  be  a  surprise,  the  eyes  of  Dr.  Dillon 
opened  larger  and  larger  every  minute,  and  his  tongue 
burned  to  ask  what  was  the  motive  of  this  extravagance. 
The  lady  gave  no  explanation ;  she  scarcely  knew  herself 
what  to  think  of  it ;  and,  on  one  occasion,  turning  her  head 
toward  the  kitchen,  at  a  moment  when  Hosa  was  peeping 
slyly  out  of  it,  the  eyes  of  both  met  each  other,  and  that 
little  minx  could  not  contain  herself,  but  fairly  burst  out 
into  laughter.  A  moment  came,  finally,  when  it  was  no 
more  possible  for  the  lady  to  remain  mute.  At  the  dessert, 
together  with  some  nice  fruit,  a  small  dish  of  confectionery 
attracted  directly  the  attention  of  all.  It  had  been  made 
by  Rosa,  who  used  for  it  the  greatest  part  of  the  sugar  in 
the  house.  Each  piece  represented  some  part  of  the  human 
body,  such  as  surgeons  are  very  fond  of  keeping  in  their 
possession,  and  occasionally  scrutinizing  and  dissecting: 
hands  with  all  the  fingers ;  feet  with  all  the  toes  ;  eyes,  and 
ears,  and  noses,  etc.,  etc.  Dr.  Dillon  took  one  of  the  last, 
and  said  that,  if  the  confectioner  had  intended  to  represent 
his  own,  he  or  she  had  completely  failed  as  an  artist,  al- 
though he  or  she  may  have  succeeded  as  a  pastry-cook. 
The  nostrils  of  that  nose  were  far  more  expanded  than  his 
own  ;  but  he  confessed,  after  breaking  a  part  of  it  and  tast- 
ing it,  that  he  could  not  boast  of  any  such  sweetness  in  his 
composition. 

Here,  undoubtedly,  a  few  words  of  explanation  were  ab- 
solutely required,  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  to  come  out  at 
last.  Without  revealing  the  precise  object  for  which  she 
had  called  the  two  gentlemen,  she  said  that  "  they  had  been 
invited  for  some  particular  reason,  connected  with  their 
profession  as  surgeons  and  physicians  ;  and  it  was  pro- 
bably for  this  reason,  that  the  cook  had  taken  the  liberty 
of  preparing  this  strange  medley.     She  had  no  idea  what- 


506  LOUISA  KIRKBRIBE. 

ever  that  it  was  to  come  on  her  table.  The  thing  had  been 
done  without  her  knowing  it.  She  hoped  that  her  dear 
guests  would  take  it  in  good  part,  as  intended  to  honor  a 
profession  so  absolutely  needed  by  mankind,  and  so  honor- 
ably carried  on  by  the  two  gentlemen  present."  Dr.  Dillon 
nodded  his  assent,  and  Dr.  McElheran  appeared  more  dumb- 
founded than  ever. 

At  last  the  meal  was  over,  the  cloth  was  removed,  two 
wine-glasses  and  a  bottle  were  left  alone  on  the  table  ;  and 
after  a  Avhile  Rosa,  having  hastily  changed  her  dress,  brought 
out  the  memorable  parchment.  But,  before  unrolling  it, 
she  said  that  some  previous  explanation  was  due,  and  then 
she  would  read  it.  We  will  not  give  the  exact  words  of 
the  speech,  but  merely  the  substance.  Until  lately.  Dr. 
Dillon  had  been  frequently  employed  in  giving  his  gratu- 
itous services  to  the  poor  and  sick  of  the  neighborhood. 
For  a  great  many  years  he  had  done  so,  without  ever  refus- 
ing his  help,  under  any  pretext  whatever.  How  many  dis- 
consolate beings  had  been  rescued  from  the  grave,  or,  at 
least,  had  seen  their  last  days  of  life  lengthened  and  ren- 
dered more  tolerable  by  the  kind  care  of  the  good  doctor  ? 
Who  could  say  the  good  he  had  done?  They  who  had 
witnessed  it  could  not  but  bless  him  for  it.  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
considered  everything  the  doctor  had  done  in  that  line  as 
done  to  herself.  She  could  not  reward  him  for  it,  and,  in 
fact,  no  earthly  reward  could  recompense  him  for  so  many 
acts  of  pure  charity.  But,  at  this  moment,  when,  owing  to 
his  advanced  age,  he  was  no  longer  able  to  do  as  much  as 
formerly,  and  when  another  friend  of  the  poor  had  volun- 
teered to  replace  him — at  least  in  all  hard  cases,  difficult  to 
attend  to — Mrs.  Kirkbride  had  thought  fit  to  express  her 
personal  gratitude  by  some  honorable  token,  which  the 
excellent  doctor  could  keep  in  his  possession,  and  proudly 
show  to  his  intimate  friends.  It  was  in  the  form  of  a  di- 
ploma^  but  not  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  on  him  any 
degree,  as  she  was  not  the  head  of  any  faculty  or  scientilic 
association.  It  was  merely  a  short  and  very  inadequate 
expression  of  what  she  felt  for  a  i)ersonal  friend  of  such 


THE  TWO  DAUQETERS.  507 

long  standing,  and  for  a  thorough  Christian,  as  she  had,  all 
her  Hfe,  known  him  to  be. 

After  these  few  words,  or  something  to  tJils  effect^  as 
witnesses  are  wont  to  say  when  called  to  testify  before 
a  court,  Eosa  advanced  gracefully  in  front  of  Dr.  Dillon, 
unrolled  the  parchment,  and  without  laughing  a  single 
time — a  feat  very  remarkable,  and  scarcely  to  be  expected 
from  her — she  read  the  diploma,  and  handed  it  to  the 
recipient. 

The  good  doctor  was  fairly  taken  in,  for  this  w^as  a  turn 
of  affau-s  with  which  none  of  his  conjectures  tallied.  He 
was  completely  taken  by  surprise,  but,  at  the  same  time, 
felt  most  deeply  grateful  for  so  delicate  a  mark  of  attention 
on  the  part  of  the  lady.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  shed 
tears  of  joy  and  tenderness  at  the  recollection  of  the  many 
acts  of  kindness  done  him  by  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  At  this  in- 
stant, his  eyes  happening  to  fall  on  Eosa,  "I  would  like  to 
laugh  with  you,"  he  said,  ''but  I  cannot  at  present.  Keep 
your  wit  for  another  day,  my  dear  Miss  McCarthy  ;  I  must, 
on  this  occasion,  seriously  tell  my  old  lady  friend  that  this 
simple  token  of  her  regard  is  of  more  value  in  my  eyes  than 
any  amount  of  money  she  may  have  formerly  given  me. 
All  the  trouble  I  ever  took  in  trying  to  do  her  will  is  far 
more  than  comjoensated  by  this  proof  of  her  consideration 
for  me ;  and  this  parchment  will  indeed  be  far  more  pre- 
cious than  the  one  I  formerly  received  at  the  beginning  of 
my  professional  career.  My  friend  here,  Mr.  McElheran," 
he  added,  'S\ill  feel  it  when,  later  on,  he  is  the  happy  re- 
cipient of  a  favor  like  this." 

This  gentleman,  of  course,  concluded  the  ceremony  by 
simply  saying  that  he  thanked  the  lady  of  the  house  for 
having  desired  his  presence  on  such  an  auspicious  occasion. 
It  would  certainly  give  him  more  alacrity  in  the  perform- 
ance of  the  duties  he  had  lately  bound  himself  to  fulfill. 
Nothing  could  give  him  more  activity  in  his  endeavors  to  do 
good  than  to  see  his  friend,  Dr.  Dillon,  so  honorably  re- 
warded by  the  lady  of  the  house  ;  and  he  was  glad  to  have 
this  occasion  to  assure  her  that  the  obligation  he  lately  had 


508  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

assumed  he  considered  as  being,  if  possible,  still  more  bind- 
ing now  tlian  ever  before. 

Such  was  the  happy  termination  of  this  little  fite,  which 
nevertheless  gave  not  to  the  natural  curiosity  of  good  old 
Dr.  Dillon  the  satisfaction  he  expected.  Let  us,  however, 
be  patient ;  before  long,  the  mystery  of  all  these  proceedings 
will  be  entirely  unraveled. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

MES.  L.  KIEKBEIDE   FULLY   DISCLOSES  HEE  PLANS. 

The  lady  had  manifested,  in  lier  last  interview  with,  her 
two  daughters,  the  satisfaction  she  experienced  that,  by 
becoming  rich  again,  her  plans  would  have  to  be  "modified," 
but  not  "given  up."  Her  fears,  before  she  spoke  to  Julia 
and  Rosa,  were  that  the  two  excellent  girls,  being  now  able 
to  marry,  would  leave  her,  since,  according  to  Scripture,  the 
new  wife  has  to  ' '  abandon  father  and  mother,  and  follow 
her  husband."  Without  them  she  would  have  found  her- 
self in  a  forlorn  condition,  even  with  plenty  of  money  in  her 
purse.  She  would  have  had  to  look  around  and  find  some 
other  girls  to  help  her  carry  her  benevolent  intentions  into 
effect.  But  she  was  sure  she  would  never  be  able  to  find 
two  others  like  her  "two  daughters."  Yet,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  an  imdertaking  such  as  was  the  one  she  had  in 
view  it  was  extremely  important  that  everything  should  go 
on  in  tip-top  order,  and  with  new  hands  it  was  to  be  feared 
it  could  not  be  so. 

She  was,  therefore,  delighted  when  she  heard  of  the  deter- 
mination of  both  her  "children  ;  "  and  she  began  to  mature 
her  plans,  modified  certainly,  but  to  their  own  advantage,  be- 
cause she  had  now  means  at  her  command  to  execute  them 
on  a  generous  scale.  She  thought,  and  thought,  and  thought 
which  was  the  best  way  to  found  an  establishment,  at  once 
industrial,  educational,  charitable^  and  religious.  She,  of 
course,  addressed  herself  to  God  in  prayer,  begging  of  him 
to  enlighten  her,  and  strengthen  her,  and  purify  her  inten- 
tions, so  that  everything  would  redound  to  his  glory  and  the 

509 


510  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE, 

good  of  her  fellow  creatures.  Her  projects  took  very  soon  a 
definite  shape,  although  she  never  ^ut  anything  in  writing. 
They  were  all  arranged  in  her  head,  and  we  must  leave  them 
there  for  a  moment. 

The  following  morning,  Mr.  Wilson  came  to  inform  her  of 
the  result  of  his  investigations,  and  was  introduced  to  Mrs. 
Kkkbride  :  "  The  property  was  all  right;  there  would  be 
three  entire  blocks  between  Eighth  and  Ninth  Avenues: 
there  was  a  gore  separated  from  the  rest  facing  Tenth  Ave- 
nue ;  Mr.  Wilson  wanted  the  consent  of  the  lady  to  sell  it, 
in  order  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  transaction,  the  assess- 
ments and  taxes  which  were  to  be  refunded  to  Mr.  E.  Bauer, 
and,  moreover,  to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  lady  a  snug  little 
sum  to  supply  what  the  revenue  of  her  house  on  Madison 
Avenue  could  not  furnish.  He  had  found  a  buyer  who  was 
ready  to  give  a  comparatively  large  price,  as  the  position,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Bloomingdale  Road  and  Manhattan- 
ville,  was  precisely  what  he  wanted  for  a  lucrative  manu- 
facturing establishment."  All  this  happened  at  a  time  of 
great  inflation^  as  they  say,  in  this  country. 

The  lady  approved  altogether  the  idea  of  Mr.  Wilson  and 
intrusted  this  gentleman  with  the  care  of  making  directly 
the  division  of  the  property.  One  third  of  it  was  to  remain 
in  her  own  name,  and  it  was  to  be  the  central  part ;  one  third 
was  to  be  conveyed  directly  to  Miss  Julia  O' Byrne,  wlio 
was  thus  to  be  turned  into  an  heiress  ready  for  a  matrimo- 
nial alliance  with  any  heir  of  good  repute  ;  the  remainder 
was  to  be  the  share  of  Miss  Rosa  McCarthy,  w^ho  was  like- 
wise to  be  left  free  in  the  choice  of  a  husband. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  not  satisfied  with  these  liberal  arrange- 
ments, which  literally  made  Mr.  Wilson  open  wide  his  eyes. 
She  made  him  draw  on  a  sheet  of  paper  the  diagram  of  her 
portion,  which  was  to  be  the  great  centre  of  all  her  institu- 
tions. On  this,  her  block,  along  Eighth  Avenue,  she  gave  im- 
mediate orders  for  the  erection  of  a  modest,  but  roomy,  brick 
house  for  herself  ;  no  extravagance  ;  everything  ordinary, 
but  tasteful ;  a  few  rooms,  an  ordinary-size  parlor  full  of  the 
light  from  the  east,  and  facing  on  the  Park  ;  and  in  the  base- 


ME8.  KIREBRIDE  FULLY  DISCLOSES  HER  PLANS     511 

ment  a  small  kitchen  with  a  dining-room  of  the  same  dimen- 
sion. On  the  same  line  of  the  avenue,  the  northern  corner 
of  the  block  remaining  to  her  was  destined  for  a  chnrch,  as 
soon  as  the  Archbishop  would  have  approved  her  plans  and 
promised  a  clergyman ;  the  southern  corner  on  the  same 
line  was  to  be  the  place  of  her  schools. 

She  likewise  directed  Mr.  Wilson  to  indicate  on  the  dia- 
gram of  this  central  block  a  separate  spot  along  Ninth 
Avenue  going  down  one  hundred  feet  in  the  block,  and  to 
divide  it  into  two  equal  parts ;  the  northern  one  to  be  deeded 
to  Miss  Julia  0' Byrne  besides  her  above-mentioned  portion  ; 
on  the  condition  that  her  future  husband  should  erect  his 
house  thereon,  and  have  in  it  a  room  to  be  used  as  a  dispen- 
sary for  the  poor ;  the  same  disposition  was  to  be  made  of 
the  southern  half  of  the  line  along  Ninth  Avenue  in  favor  of 
Dr.  Dillon,  who  was  likewise  to  give  a  part  of  his  bachelor's 
apartments,  constructed  at  his  own  expense,  for  the  use  of 
the  diseased  and  suffering  poor.  That  side  of  her  central 
block  was  consequently  to  be  devoted  to  the  relief  of  suffer- 
ing humanity. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  more  astonished  than  ever,  and  waited 
for  what  was  coming  next.     Mrs.  Kirkbride  wished  him  to 

indicate  on  the  same  diagram  along  the  line  of  Eighty 

Street,  looking  south,  a  square  of  one  hundred  feet  to  be 
conveyed  by  deed  to  Miss  Rosa  McCarthy,  besides  her  por- 
tion, on  condition  that  her  future  husband  should  erect 
thereon  a  house  where  he  should  manage  to  have  an  out- 
side office  to  give  consultations  on  law  to  all  the  neighbors 
threatened  with  lawsuits. 

''I  suppose,  madam,"  exclaimed  here  Mr.  Wilson,  '^that 
on  the  diagram  I  can  draw  a  square  corresponding  to  this 
last  one,  but  fronting  north,  to  be  conveyed  to  myself  on 
condition  that  there  will  be  a  real-estate  office  in  a  house 
built  by  me  for  the  convenience  of  those  who  wish  to  buy 
and  sell  without  fear  of  imposition." 

"I  am  sorry,  sir,"  replied  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  '^that  this 
cannot  be  done,  for  several  reasons ;  the  first  is  that  I  am 
decidedly  opposed  to  encouraging  speculation  of  any  sort 


512  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

in  my  new  establishment,  and  everybody  knows  that  in  our 
days  real  estate  is  a  great  object  of  speculation,  or  rather  of 
gambling,  of  which  I  am  sick  ;  the  second  reason  is  that  the 
very  place  where  you  would  have  your  square  is  necessary 
as  well  as  all  the  other  parts  of  the  block,  except  those  you 
have  drawn  on  the  map.  All  this  must  be  marked  out  as  a 
common  garden,  of  a  queer  shape,  to  be  sure,  but  belonging 
by  right  to  all  the  occupants  of  the  various  establishments 
above  mentioned.  In  all  and  every  one  of  the  houses  there 
must  be  doors  leading  to  this  common  garden,  which  we 
will  call,  if  you  please,  '  Our  People's  Garden.'  The  people 
of  all  the  shanties  around  will  have  the  privilege  of  coming 
to  rest  under  the  shade,  with  their  children,  including  the 
babies,  provided  they  behave  themselves,  whenever  they 
feel  tired  of  walking  amidst  the  promiscuous  crowds  of  the 
great  New  York  Central  Park."  By  these  remarks  Mrs. 
Kirkbride  concluded  her  instructions  to  Mr.  Wilson,  who 
left  her  to  execute  them. 

All  these  arrangements  supposed  that  the  persons  who 
should  have  to  build  those  houses  would  consent  to  the 
great  scheme.  But  Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  very  cunning,  as 
Dr.  Dillon  had  already  remarked.  She  knew  that  Julia 
would  "force"  her  "future  husband"  to  consent;  and 
likewise  Posa  McCarthy.  Dr.  Dillon  was  the  only  one  who 
might  object,  but  the  lady  likewise  kneAV  that  he  was  her 
humble  cavallere  serviente^  and  thus  she  contented  herself 
with  writing  to  him  a  note  to  this  effect :  "He  was  to  come 
into  possession  of  a  plot  of  ground  on  one  of  her  blocks,  on 
the  condition  of  building  thereon,  at  his  own  expense,  a 
house  where  he  should  have  a  dispensary,  etc.  etc." 

When  the  good  doctor  received  the  note,  McElheran  was 
with  him — he  used  of  late  to  go  to  see  him  every  day. 
After  having  read  the  contents,  he  passed  it  to  his  young 
friend  : 

"Read  this,"  he  said  ;  "  the  thing  is  not  quite  so  bad  as 
I  conjectured.  I  imagined  that  I  was  fated  to  become  a 
monk  of  the  most  austere  kind  to  please  Mrs.  Kirkbride  ; 


MRS.  KIRKBRIDE  FULLY  BISGLOSES  HER  PLANS.      513 

there  is  only  a  qiiestion  of  becoming  a  physician  at  her  ser- 
vice. Have  you  received  a  dispatch  of  this  kind,  my  dear 
Mac?" 

"  ISTot  unless  the  messenger  has  just  taken  it  to  my  house 
during  my  absence,"  replied  the  young  doctor.  "I  must 
leave  you,"  he  continued,  ''  to  go  to  see  her.  She  must  be 
in  great  glee  forming  such  jDrojects  and  distributing  her 
orders."  Saying  this,  he  left  the  house,  jumped  into  his 
buggy,  and  was  soon  at  the  well-known  brick  house. 

Mrs.  Kirkbride  was  delighted  to  see  him. 

''Did  you  receive  my  message?"  she  exclaimed. 

''I  have  not  had  yet  that  honor,  madam,"  he  replied, 
''but  I  have  read  the  one  you  disj)atched  to  Dr,  Dillon." 

"  You  did !  "  she  cried  out,  bursting  ^vith  laughter ;  ''and 
how  does  he  take  it  ? " 

"As  he  ought,  madam,"  he  said,  "for  nobody  can  resist 
you  ;  and  I  come  precisely  to  know  my  fate  from  you." 

"Julia  can  tell  you,  doctor,  better  than  I  can  myself," 
replied  Mrs.  Kirdbride.  "  She  is  now  an  heii^ess,  and  your 
relatives  cannot  object  to  anything  you  j^ropose  with  re- 
spect to  her." 

At  this  moment,  Julia  answered  the  bell  which  Mrs. 
KLirkbride  had  just  rung,  and  entered  the  room.  The  lady, 
pushing  her  gently  toward  McElheran,  withdrew  instanter. 
By  a  strange  and  almost  unaccountable  accident — it  must 
have  been  an  accident — the  girl  could  not  keep  her  footing 
under  the  friendly  imj^ulse  given  her  by  her  "mother," 
and  was  going  to  fall,  when  very  opportunely  McElheran 
rushing  toward  her  and  opening  his  arms,  received  her  be- 
fore she  quite  fell  down,  and  found  himseK  alone,  standing 
in  the  middle  of  the  room  with  Julia  in  his  arms.  What 
was  said  by  both  of  them,  after  the  first  moment  of  emo- 
tion, could  scarcely  be  repeated  in  a  high-toned  novel, 
as  it  would  be  thought  too  simple  and  commonplace  by 
ordinary  readers.  We  heard  only  two  short  phrases  which 
scarcely  deserve  to  be  recorded,  but  which  we  must  give 
for  the  sake  of  accuracy  : 

"  You  are  mine  now,  and  I  am  yours,"  said,  gently,  McEl- 
33 


514  LOUISA  KntKBRIDB. 

heran.  In  a  still  lower  tone,  Jnlia  replied :  "  We  both  be- 
long to  God,  who  evidently  unites  us." 

When  the  young  doctor  left  the  house,  it  was  to  go  di- 
rectly to  an  architect  of  his  acquaintance,  to  whom  he  gave 
the  plan,  as  he  had  the  means,  of  a  rather  stately  building. 
The  position  was  admu'ably  suited  for  something  of  a  high 
order,  as  the  corner  of  the  block  which  his  house  was  to 
occupy.  Just  looked  over  an  angle  of  Manhattan  Square, 
where  the  city  authorities  already  thought  of  erecting 
splendid  buildings  to  contain  the  large  collections  of  natu- 
ral history  belonging  to  New  York.  The  house  of  Mrs. 
Kirkbride,  on  Eighth  Avenue,  was  to  be  an  unpretending 
edifice  of  brick,  of  small  dimensions,  and  modest  but  taste- 
ful appearance.  The  residence  of  McElheran  was  to  be  the 
palace  of  a  Dal  Cassian  chieftain,  of  which  his  whole  clan 
should  be  proud,  reduced  at  last  to  admire,  without  com- 
plaining or  even  grumbling,  as  Scandinavians  alone  have  a 
right  to  do.  Over  the  main  entrance,  Erin  was  to  be  carved 
in  white  marble,  not  weeping  any  more,  nor  drawing  from 
her  harp  melancholy  notes,  but  her  feet  resting  on  a  cloud, 
her  hands  raised  up  running  on  the  chords  of  the  instru- 
ment, her  head  erect,  and  her  lips  open,  evidently  intoning 
a  pean  of  triumph.  The  interior  was  to  correspond :  marble 
stairs  and  bronze  banisters  of  a  chaste  design  ;  lofty  ceil- 
ings decorated  with  elegant  frescoes ;  airy  rooms  full  of 
light,  and  painted  in  subdued  colors  ;  everywhere  the  harp, 
the  shamrock,  green  meadows,  and  the  red  banner  of  the 
North  ;  specimens  of  all  the  curiosities  of  the  island  placed 
on  tables  in  the  halls,  under  glass  covers  ;  other  details 
without  number,  which  it  would  be  too  long  for  us  to 
go  through.  These  were  the  general  features  which  Mr. 
McElheran  suggested  to  the  artist  whom  he  had  chosen  to 
carry  out  his  plans. 

Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne,  meanwhile,  was  acquainted  Avith 
the  change  in  the  position  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  by  a  note  from 
Rosa ;  and  he  went  directly  to  hear  the  particulars.  He 
was  most  happy  to  consent  to  the  benevolent  designs  of  the 
lady,  and  to  become,  for  his  countrymen  of  the  West  Side, 


MRS.  KIBKBRIBE  FULLY  DISCLOSES  HER  PLANS.     515 

a  legal  adviser  and  a  friend.  But  he  found  a  startling 
omission  in  the  ideas  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride :  slie  had  not 
thought  of  his  father !  Was  the  venerable  Patrick  O'  Byrne 
to  remain  out  of  the  colony  ?  He  wished  to  have  directly 
an  interview  with  the  lady  on  the  subject.  As  soon  as  he 
opened  his  lips  in  a  kind  of  complaining  tone  : 

''  I  have  not  been  so  thoughtless,  my  dear  sir,"  exclaimed 
Mrs.  Kirkbride;  ''but  I  have  not  thought  proper  to  give 
orders  to  Mr.  Wilson  with  respect  to  what  I  intend  to  do  in 
the  matter,  because,  being  an  American,  he  cannot  imagine 
that  a  shanty  can  be  made  nice ;  he  would  not  have  under- 
stood me.  I  have  written  to  Mr.  Doyle,  our  former  porter 
in  Beaver  Street,  to  come  here  this  afternoon,  and  he  may 
be  here  at  any  moment,  and  he  will  much  better  understand 
what  I  mean  to  do  for  your  father  than  Mr.  Wilson  could." 

At  that  moment  the  bell  was  rung,  and  Mr.  Doyle  ar- 
rived. After  a  few  words  of  introduction,  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
told  him : 

"I  want  a  shanty  to  be  built  in  a  snug  corner  of  'Our 
People's  Garden,'  and  you  know,  Mr.  Doyle,  much  better 
than  any  other  man  on  earth,  who  can  be  the  best  carpenter 
to  put  it  up.  Mr.  Patrick  0' Byrne  is  to  occupy  it,  and 
it  must  be,  in  consequence,  convenient  and  nice.  The 
old  gentleman  will  have  the  care  of  the  grounds ;  he  can 
choose  any  companion  he  likes  to  help  him,  and  he  will  find 
his  meals  in  your  own  apartments,  Mr.  Cornelius  ;  and  Rosa, 
I  am  sure,  will  know  well  how  to  serve  him  to  his  taste. 
These  are  my  projects  with  respect  to  him,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  that  he  will  accept." 

"I  am  sure  of  it,"  exclaimed  here  Mr.  Doyle,  "and  he 
will  exchange  with  pleasure  our  quarters  of  James  Street 
for  a  nice  shanty  on  these  grounds.  But  I  must  protest 
that  I  ought  not  to  be  left  in  the  cold ;  and  since  my  old 
friend  is  at  liberty  to  choose  some  companion  to  help  him 
I  am  sure  he  will  not  refuse  me.  I  am  tired  of  my  drudgery 
in  Beaver  Street,  although  those  gentlemen,  Mr.  T.  Bland 
in  particular,  are  always  kind  to  me  ;  but  it  is  time  for  me  to 
retire.     I  have  savings  in  bank  which  Mrs.  Kirkbride  can 


516  LOUISA  KIRKBRIDE. 

use  in  her  benevolent  projects ;  all  I  ask  is  to  be  admitted 
into  the  liappy  colony  that  is  to  be  founded." 

Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne  declared  that  everything  was  as  it 
should  be ;  he  accepted  with  real  joy  all  his  part  of  the  bar- 
gain ;  would  have  a  decent  brick  house  built  on  his  "hun- 
dred-foot square"  along  Eighty Street,  and  give  with 

pleasure  his  leisure  moments  to  his  countrymen  in  their 
legal  difficulties. 

But  old  Dr.  Dillon  had  not  yet  been  heard  from,  except 
in  a  general  Avay,  through  his  friend  McElheran.  Besides 
the  wholesale  acceptance  of  the  proposal,  he  had  something 
of  importance  to  communicate  secretly  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride, 
and  having  written  a  note  to  her,  he  obtained  an  interview 
in  her  room  that  very  evening. 

"  Madam,"  he  said,  ''  you  have  done  me  honor  in  choos- 
ing me  for  the  part  assigned  me  in  your  plans.  I  am  an 
old  bachelor,  and  you  offer  to  my  old  age  an  honorable 
asylum  for  which  I  must  be  thankful.  The  savings  of  my 
whole  life  do  not  amount  to  much  ;  still  t\iQj  can  be  useful 
in  the  general  working  of  your  ideas,  and  you  are  most 
welcome  to  them.  But  I  confess  that  there  is  a  point  that 
puzzles  me,  and  which  I  can  scarcely  reconcile  with  your 
usual  prudence  and  consideration.  The  colony  of  which 
you  are  going  to  be  the  foundress  is  eminently  a  Catholic 
colony,  and  you  know  that  I  am  not  a  Catholic  ;  and  I  have 
never  said  a  word  to  you  intimating  the  least  inclination  to 
a  change  in  this  regard.  Will  it  not  jar,  madam,  with  the 
unity  of  your  plans  to  have  one  of  the  pillars  of  your  new 
establisliment  naturally  excluded  from  the  church  you  in- 
tend to  build  ?  Will  it  not  be  a  bad  example  for  the  com- 
mon people  of  the  neighborhood  to  see  one  of  the  doctors 
chosen  by  their  benefactress,  belonging  to  a  different  church 
organization  and  unamenable  to  the  church  laws  accepted 
by  them  ?  How  do  you  intend,  madam,  to  obviate  this  dif- 
ficulty T' 

"Dr.  Dillon,"  replied  the  lady,  "is  always  the  same 
witty  and  amusing  man  that  I  have  known  all  my  life. 
Whenever  he  wishes  to  joke  he  is  always  most  serious  ; 


MnS.  KIRKBBIDE  FULLY  DISCLOSES  HER  PLANS.      517 

and  he  presents  you  with  a  tremendous  difficulty,  when  the 
only  way  to  get  over  it  is  to  smile  at  his  wit  and  tell  him  : 
'  I  know  what  you  are  about.'  In  the  present  case,  I  will 
merely  say  that  your  presence,  doctor,  will  not  jar  with  us, 
and  there  will  not  be  a  Protestant  physician  in  a  Catholic 
colony,  because,  in  heart,  you  are  no  more  a  Protestant 
than  I  am  ;  and  I  advise  you  on  the  day  I  will  be  received 
into  the  Church — which  is  to  be  shortly — to  present  your- 
self for  admission  and  accompany  me  to  the  altar,  in  order 
to  receive  baptism  with  me." 

"  This  is  too  bad,"  exclaimed  the  doctor  ;  "  I  expected  to 
have  some  fun,  and  I  am  paid  off  just  at  the  beginning  of 
my  bargaining.  I  do  not  know  how  you  have  found  me 
out  so  easily,  since  I  have  never  said  a  word  before,  to 
you,  showing  in  the  least,  what  was  in  my  mind.  I  have 
read  a  great  deal  about  religion,  and,  in  point  of  argument, 
the  Catholic  Church,  to  say  the  least,  is  not  behind  her  ad- 
versaries ;  but  I  have  seen  still  more  than  I  have  read,  and 
I  am  determined  to  go  back  to  the  bosom  of  the  mother 
that  my  ancestors  had  abandoned  for  no  very  good  motives, 
I  am  afraid.  And,  to  be  candid  with  you,  the  same  gentle- 
man whom  you  consult  has  been  also  my  adviser  and  friend 
for  more  than  two  months.  Let  it  be  agreed  among  our- 
selves that  the  day  of  your  baptism  shall  be  the  day  of 
mine  ;  but  this  ought  to  l)e  kept  a  secret  to  avoid  the  an- 
noyance of  questions  by  third  parties,  who  always  want  more 
exact  information,  precisely  because  they  are  not  entitled 
to  any." 

"lam  not  surprised,"  observed  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  "since 
I  knew  it  would  be  so,  and  your  secret  is  safe  in  my  bosom. 
Thank  you,  doctor,  for  your  ready  adoption  of  a  project  to 
which  nothing  appeared  to  attract  you  ;  for,  all  those  who 
will  form  our  colony  were  so  naturally  brought  to  it  that 
they  could  not  avoid  joining  it,  except  you,  doctor.  You 
alone  come  to  it  sideways,  if  I  may  use  the  expression ; 
yet,  on  this  very  account,  most  straightforwardly  and  gen 
erously.    God  bless  you,  or  rather  God  bless  us  all ! " 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

THE  EIS-D. — ALL  IS   WELL  THAT  EIS^DS  WELL. 

The  news  had  spread  around  all  the  cottages  of  the  neigh- 
borhood ;  and  there  was  in  them  something  that  stirred  their 
inmates.  It  was  nothing  definite,  it  is  true ;  a  mere  rumor, 
in  fact;  stU],  everybody  felt  that  a  happy  occurrence  was 
imminent.  There  was  joy  in  the  air;  and  the  immediate 
future  was  going  to  reveal  things  altogether  unexpected. 
The  main  burden  of  it  was  "  the  English  lady  " — her  x)roper 
name  was  too  hard  for  those  simple  lips — was  going  to  be 
rich  again,  and  she  would  do  for  the  neighborhood  some- 
thing equivalent  to  what  she  did  formerly,  in  another  local- 
ity. The  good  people  did  not  fancy  that  it  would  be  much 
better  still,  because  this  time  directed  by  Catholic  ideas  ; 
''what  she  did  formerly"  was  enough  for  them.  They  did 
not  dare  to  apply  for  news  to  any  inmates  of  Mrs.  Kirk- 
bride's  household ;  it  might  have  been  indelicate  ;  but  when- 
ever Mrs.  Froment,  who  was  on  the  eve  of  her  removal, 
appeared  out  of  the  house,  she  was  surrounded  by  two  or 
three  gossix)ing  grannies  who  thought  she  knew  everything 
and  would  communicate  what  she  knew.  But  the  French 
lady  was  no  more  acquainted  with  the  truth  of  the  rumor 
than  any  other  outsider.  She  had  bowed  politely  to  Mrs. 
Kirkbride,  the  last  time  she  saw  her,  and  expressed  her 
pleasure  at  the  good  news  current  in  the  neighborhood  ; 
and  the  lady  had  merely  thanked  Mrs.  Froment  without 
entering  into  any  details. 

But  Celtic  ingenuity,  and  we  may  add  curiosity,  could 
not  be  thus  for  a  long  time  baffled  ;  and  the  old  dame  who, 

518 


ALL  IS  WELL  THAT  ENDS  WELL.  519 

with  her  daughters,  had  so  pleasantly  entertained  Mrs. 
Kirkbride,  at  the  exhibition  in  the  convent  of  Eighty-first 
Street,  contrived  a  plan  which  was  sure  to  succeed.  She 
sent  the  eldest  of  her  daughters  to  have  a  chat  with  Kosa  in 
the  kitchen  ;  and  to  open  the  conversation,  the  girl  carried 
a  dozen  fresh  eggs  with  a  nice  little  cupful  of  goat' s  milk. 

''Mother  hopes,"  said  the  child,  "that  the  recent  good 
luck  of  your  mistress  will  not  prevent  her  from  accepting 
again  a  trifling  show  of  good  will,  which  mother  used  to 
offer  her  occasionally." 

"Quite  the  reverse,"  answered  Rosa;  "good  luck  opens 
the  heart  and  makes  it  friendly,  and  my  excellent  mistress 
is  yet  more  tender-hearted  for  all  those  living  around  her 
since  this  happy  occurrence  than  she  has  ever  been  before." 

"  Is  she  going  back  to  live  in  her  old  house  in  Madison 
Avenue?" 

"No,  indeed,"  answered  Rosa,  with  surprise  ;  "  she  will 
reside  not  far  from  here,  and  you  will  continue  to  be  her 
neighbors." 

"  Thank  God  for  it,"  exclaimed  the  child  ;  "  and  will  she 
be  as  rich  as  she  was  then  ?  " 

"I  cannot  say  how  it  will  be  exactly,"  answered  Rosa; 
"but  she  will  be  able  to  do  more  than  she  did  at  that  time, 
because  she  will  have  nobody  to  oppose  her  will,  and  she 
will  be  able  to  dispose  of  her  property  as  she  likes,  and  this 
she  could  never  do  before." 

"  And  you  and  Miss  Julia  will  continue  to  live  with  her  ? ' ' 
inquired  again  the  young  girl. 

"Of  course,"  said  Miss  McCarthy;  "and  many  others 
besides  ;  doctors  to  take  care  of  the  sick  ;  lawyers  to  see 
that  everybody  enjoys  his  rights,  and  schools,  and  a  church, 
and  beautiful  grounds  to  sit  and  talk  in  the  shade,  and  I  do 
not  know  what  else." 

"I  hope  that  you  do  not  intend  to  joke  with  me,  Miss 
Rosa?"  said  the  child. 

"Joke  with  you!"  replied  she;  "what  would  be  my 
object  ?  I  tell  you  what  I  have  heard,  and  I  have  reason  to 
believe  that  in  a  few  months  all  this  will  be  a  reality." 


520  LOUISA  EIRKBRIDE. 

As  soon  as  the  news  spread  in  the  shanties,  with  many 
more  details  never  given  out  by  Kosa,  a  sndden  impulse  was 
communicated  to  the  whole  population  ;  and  the  wise  people 
spoke  of  nothing  else,  in  the  evening  of  that  day,  than  to 
improvise  :\,fete  to  celebrate  the  happy  news.  Immediately 
a  number  of  mammas  A\dth  babies  in  their  arms  and  small 
children  led  by  the  hand,  declared  themselves  ready  to  go, 
if  some  one  promised  to  be  the  spokeswoman ;  and  it  was 
not  difficult  to  find  one  ;  several,  in  fact,  spoke  at  once,  and 
claimed  the  honor.  They  soon  defiled  in  procession  along 
the  street,  and  turning  in  a  body  at  the  nearest  corner  of 
Eighth  Avenue,  they  reached  the  house  at  the  moment  when 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  and  both  her  '' daughters"  had  finished 
their  tea.  The  house  was  too  small  to  contain  the  whole 
number ;  many  were  left  outside  on  the  avenue  ;  but  their 
known  presence  gave  more  confidence  to  the  bold  woman 
who  had  been  unanimously  designated  to  speak  first. 

''A  few,  or  rather  all  of  your  neighbors,  madam,"  she 
said,  ' '  feel  great  pleasure  in  congratulating  you  on  account 
of  the  good  news  they  have  just  heard.  Since  the  first  day 
you  came  to  live  among  us,  we  took  a  deep  interest  in  you  : 
but  the  misfortune  that  brought  you  to  this  wilderness 
made  us  sad,  and  almost  the  only  thing  we  could  do  was  to 
sympathize  in  our  hearts  with  you.  We  can  rejoice  to-day 
and  openly  give  vent  to  our  sincere  feelings,  since  by  doing 
so  we  can  but  increase  your  joy  :  and  what  makes  our  hap- 
piness perfect  is  to  know  that  you  will  continue  to  live 
among  us,  and  do  not  propose  to  go  back  to  more  fashion- 
able quarters." 

''My  dear  neighbors,"  exclaimed  the  lady,  ''more  fashion- 
able quarters  could  not  make  me  more  happy.  It  is  but 
just  that  where  I  have  found  rest,  there  I  should  do  the 
little  amount  of  good  which  God  will  enable  me  to  do.  But 
I  see  around  more  friends  than  I  ever  became  acquainted 
with  ;  allow  me  to  go  out  with  you  all ;  we  will  have  our 
meeting  in  the  open  air." 

So  saying,  she  went  out  of  the  house,  followed  by  those 
who  had  been  able  to  enter,  and  when  outside,  she  was 


ALL  IS  WELL   THAT  E^^DS   WELL.  521 

surprised  tliat  people  were  actually  flocking  from  all  sides 
around  toward  the  spot  where  she  stood.  The  feeling  that 
had  first  made  impression  on  her  heart  in  the  convent  of 
Eighty-first  Street,  when  she  found  she  was  known  to  so 
great  a  number  of  peojDle  that  she  had  never  before  re- 
marked, became  then  almost  overwhelming.  All  that  mul- 
titude of  persons  who  began  to  surround  her,  api^eared  to 
forai  in  truth  her  family.  The  fearful  sense  of  isolation  in 
the  world,  which  had  well-nigh  overpowered  her,  after  the 
death  of  her  husband  and  son,  when  she  felt  the  need  of 
some  prop  to  support  her  in  her  anguish,  and  found,  to  her 
great  relief,  the  friendly  aid  of  Julia  and  Rosa  ;  the  feeling 
of  despondency,  produced  by  a  deep  sense  of  helplessness 
in  the  loss  of  all  those  on  whom  she  had  previously  relied, 
gave  way  to  the  contrary  conviction  of  strength,  coming 
from  outside,  and  engendered  by  the  look  of  s^Tupathetic 
faces  all  turned  toward  her  witli  beaming  eyes,  and  open 
lips  ready  to  kiss,  and  open  arms  ready  to  embrace.  Yes, 
she  had  friends,  or  rather  she  saw  a  large  number  of  newly 
found  relatives  claiming  kindred  with  her,  if  not  of  blood, 
at  least  of  feeling. 

''  It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone,"  so  the  first  page  of 
the  Bible  says ;  but  toward  the  end  of  the  divine  record, 
the  tongue  of  the  Redeemer  uttered  a  much  deeper  saying : 
''This  I  command  you,  that  you  love  each  other"  (John 
XV.  17) ;  and,  at  this  moment,  the  heart  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride 
felt  the  sweetness  of  this  ''commandment."  Who  could 
speak  to  her  of  isolation,  of  despondency,  of  helplessness  ? 
She  was  actually  supported  by  a  multitude  ;  and  this  sup- 
port could  not  be  any  more  taken  away  from  her.  A  hus- 
band may  die,  a  son  may  perish  or  abandon  you  ;  the 
brotherhood  in  which  the  Christian  soul  enters  cannot  be 
dissolved,  and  the  happiness  the  thought  of  this  imparts  to 
the  soul  is  as  imperishable  as  the  Gospel  itself  of  Christ. 
These  were  the  feelings,  produced  in  the  heart  of  the  lady, 
by  the  sight  of  so  many  friends.  She  had  to  go  through 
the  long  lines  of  mothers  and  children,  to  say  a  word  to 
each,  to  pat  the  cheeks  of  the  little  girls,  to  smile  on  those 


522  LOUISA  ELREBIIIDE. 

in  their  teens,  and  to  receive  from  all  assurances  of  everlast- 
ing gratitude. 

When,  finally,  they  all  left,  one  gi'oup  after  another,  her 
own  " brick  house "  did  not  appear  to  her  any  more  "lone- 
ly" and  '^ deserted;"  but  after  these  had  gone  bodily 
away,  it  seemed  to  her  that  the  souls  of  all  her  visitors  lin- 
gered still  in  her  company,  and  filled  the  space  she  moved 
in  with  serried  phalanxes  of  living  and  loving  spirits.  Such 
is  the  effect  produced  on  an  elevated  mind  and  a  pure  heart 
by  the  ennobling  thoughts  infallibly  engendered  by  the 
Christian  religion. 

"Children,"  said  Mrs.  Kirkbride  to  Julia  and  Eosa,  after 
they  were  left  alone,  "you  have  more  countrywomen  in  the 
neighborhood  than  I  thought,  even  after  all  the  experience 
I  imagined  I  had  acquired.  Dr.  Dillon  was  very  right  in 
telling  me  that  the  country  is  full  of  them  ;  this  neighbor- 
hood, particularly,  swarms  with  them  ;  when  our  establish- 
ments are  in  full  sway,  the  only  thing  I  fear  is  they  will  be 
too  small." 

"Then,  madam,"  observed  Rosa,  "we  must  find  co-ope- 
rators to  help  us  to  enlarge  them  ;  I  intend,  for  my  part,  to 
have  plenty  of  people  around  me,  in  twenty  years,  to  make 
them  have  their  share  with  me  in  the  affair." 

"How  your  imagination  runs  away  with  you!"  said 
Julia,  laughing.  "We  must  think  more  of  the  present 
time  than  of  the  future,  for  it  is  clear  we  have  a  great  deal 
to  do  actually  without  thinking  of  what  our  children  Avill 
do  after  us.  And  it  is  proper  to  begin  as  soon  as  possible, 
since  everything  is  now  settled  and  agreed  upon  among  us." 

Their  prayers  that  evening  were  said  with  hearts  full  of 
joy,  and  the  dreams  of  Rosa  were  so  enticing,  that  Julia 
woke  up  several  times  during  the  night  at  the  bustle  she 
made. 

Soon  builders  and  carpenters  and  laborers  were  engaged 
all  over  the  block  on  whicli  centred  so  many  hopes.  The 
house  of  Mrs.  Kirkbride  would  be  finished  in  two  montlis, 
as  it  was  to  be  a  modest  building  ;  those  of  Mr.  Cornelius 


ALL  18  WELL  THAT  ENDS  WELL.  523 

0' Byrne  and  of  Dr.  Dillon  would  require  three ;  but  the 
palatial  mansion  of  McElheran  could  not  be  finished  in  less 
than  six  or  nine. 

So  a  temporary  change  of  programme  was  agreed  upon. 
The  happy  union  of  Julia  and  Rosa  with  the  two  young 
gentlemen  would  take  place  shortly,  on  the  same  day. 
After  this,  until  the  completion  of  all  the  buildings,  Mr. 
O' Byrne  and  his  wife  would  occupy  the  apartments  of  the 
Froments,  and  McElheran  would  continue  to  live  in  his 
house  on  the  Bloomingdale  Road.  Christmas  Day  was  to 
bring  in  the  happy  inauguration  of  these  interesting  events. 
The  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  the  Saviour  would  be,  at  the 
same  time,  the  occasion  of  the  spiritual  birth  in  the  Church 
of  two  hearts  already  for  a  long  time  devoted  to  Christ. 
Mrs.  Kirkbride  and  Dr.  Dillon  were  to  be  baptized  on  that 
day. 

All  these  ceremonies  took  place  at  an  early  Mass  on 
Christmas  Day,  and  there  is  no  need  of  telling  our  readers 
that  the  cradle  of  Christ  was  piously  surrounded  in  spirit 
by  all  the  participants  in  those  holy  rites  who,  all  to- 
gether, sealed  by  holy  communion  their  mutual  loves  and 
the  supereminent  love  of  God  in  their  heart.  No  written 
details  could  give  an  idea  of  the  interior  delights  experienced 
by  all ;  and  on  this  account  they  are  better  omitted.  Still, 
there  were  circumstances  which  must  be  mentioned,  as  they 
were  peculiar  to  the  actors  in  this  moving  drama. 

Mr.  Cornelius  O' Byrne  saw  around  him,  in  the  crowd  that 
filled  the  church,  not  only  his  early  friends  of  the  ''  mutual 
aid  society  "  with  O'Neill  at  their  head,  but  likewise  no  less 
personages  than  the  District  Attorney  of  New  York  and  the 
Chief  of  Police  with  a  host  of  eminent  lights  of  the  legal 
profession.  Mr.  McElheran  performed  a  still  greater  won- 
der by  bringing  as  willing  witnesses  to  his  union  with  Julia 
all  the  members  of  the  McElheran  clan  living  at  the  time 
in  New  York.  Not  a  single  one  was  missed,  and  the  fol- 
lowing day  one  of  them  wrote,  in  the  name  of  all  the 
others,  to  the  large  number  of  their  relatives  in  Ireland, 
that  they  could  in  no  way  object  to  the  step  taken  by  the 


524  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

young  chieftain  in  nniting  himself  to  a  noble  heiress  of  the 
O' Byrne  sept.  They  had  had,  moreover,  ocular  demon- 
stration of  the  future  respectability  of  the  family,  by  going 
all  together,  a  few  days  before,  to  examine  the  building 
starting  up  near  the  corner  of  Manhattan  Square.  Already 
the  bas-relief  of  Erin  was  in  position,  and  w^ould  speak  to 
future  generations  of  the  love  entertained  by  the  inmates  of 
the  building  for  their  own  dear  country. 

Of  all  the  former  friends  of  Dr.  Dillon,  hardly  any  one 
could  be  seen  in  the  church  behind  him  ;  only  several  old 
ladies,  belonging,  evidently,  to  the  Episcopalian  persuasion, 
opened  their  eyes  more  perhaps  than  modesty  would  allow. 
The  doctor  used  afterward  to  say  that  they  went  there  with 
the  firm  conviction  that  they  would  witness  his  marriage 
■with  Mrs.  Kirkbride.  "God  forgive  me,"  he  added,  "but 
I  am  afraid  there  was  in  their  hearts  some  jealous  feel- 
ing lingering,  because,  in  the  time  of  our  intimate  acquaint- 
ance, I  had  not  proposed  to  them  as  several  of  them  thought 
I  should."  This  is  the  only  revenge  the  good  doctor  ever 
took  of  the  very  cutting  remarks  made  by  several  of  them 
on  the  step  he  had  on  that  day  taken. 

As  to  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  finally,  the  whole  church,  we  may 
say,  was  filled  with  her  friends  ;  they  had  come  from  every 
quarter,  mostly  Milesians,  to  be  sure,  yet  of  other  races 
likewise.  French,  like  the  Froments,  English,  like  Mr.  Wil- 
son, Americans,  like  T.  Bland ;  but,  of  course,  the  great 
mass  came  from  shanties,  either  around  her  former  resi- 
dence in  Madison  Avenue,  or  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
"  lonely  brick  house." 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  this  last  spot  was  evi- 
dently stirred  up  with  a  most  unusual  commotion.  The 
night  happened  to  be  calm  and  not  too  cold,  as  is  becoming 
on  such  day  as  this — the  birth  of  an  Infant  Saviour ;  a  few 
inches  of  snow  covered  the  ground,  crisp  and  hard,  to  make 
the  walk  easy,  and  shed  a  gentle  light  in  the  air  ;  some  few 
bluish  tomtits  and  a  stray  wren  or  two,  not  yet  gone  south, 
had  twittered  the  whole  day  long  in  the  bare  bushes  along 
the  road,  and  were  quietly  sleeping  under  the  eaves  of  the 


ALL  IS  WELL  THAT  ENDS  WELL.  Q25 

shanties :  the  blue  vault  of  the  heavens  above  was  brilliant 
with  the  brightest  stars  of  the  firmament :  Orion  and  its 
belt  shining  with  three  diamonds,  purer  than  the  famed 
ones  of  Golconda ;  Sirius,  just  rising  in  the  east,  and  daz- 
zling the  eyes  with  a  splendor  superior  to  that  of  Venus  ; 
several  planets  also,  chiefly  Jupiter,  with  his  white  silvery 
lustre ;  the  incessant  sparkling  of  innumerable  twinkling 
orbs  spread  at  random  overhead,  as  the  white  sand  border- 
ing the  shores  of  the  ocean  shines  under  the  feet  of  the 
traveler ;  this  spectacle,  so  often  seen  and  never  enough 
admired,  had  been  evidently  designed  by  Almighty  God  to 
grace  with  its  splendor  the  happiness  of  the  day.  Dressed 
in  their  best  attire,  men,  women,  children  poured  forth  from 
every  habitation,  cottage,  or  recess  ;  their  ringing  voices 
were  heard  in  the  stillness  of  the  night ;  their  gambols  were 
seen  in  the  dimness  of  the  twilight.  They  thought,  they 
felt,  they  spoke  only  of  one  thing — the  ceremonies  of  the 
previous  morning  and  the  joys  of  the  present  night.  They 
surrounded  the  "lonely  brick  house"  near  Eighth  Avenue, 
and  the  inmates  inside  were  suddenly  surprised  by  the  gen- 
tle murmur  of  many  voices,  swelling  at  last  in  a  univer- 
sal burst  of  hurraing  joy.  A  bugle  was  heard  at  the  same 
moment ;  it  was  once  more  that  of  Tom  O'Neill  giving  out 
"Patrick's  Day,"  as  in  that  other  famous  night.  Of  the 
company  assembled  in  the  house,  Cornelius  0' Byrne  was 
the  first  to  hear  and  distinguish  the  tune.  Suddenly,  all  the 
windows  and  the  only  door  of  the  house  were  thrown  wide 
open,  and  inside  and  outside  there  was  a  mixing  up  of  all 
ranks,  all  ages,  all  tempers.  Mrs.  Kirkbride,  in  her  most 
prosperous  days,  had  never  seen  nor  felt  anything  of  the 
kind.  Had  they  been  French,  they  would  all  have  danced 
around  an  improvised  bonfire.  They  had,  at  least,  this 
last  token  of  exuberance  of  feeling.  All  the  urchins  of  the 
large  party  had  collected,  on  their  way  down,  the  logs,  the 
brushwood,  the  broken  barrels  that  had  fallen  in  their  way. 
They  threw  the  whole  into  a  heap  ;  soon  the  blaze  rose  up 
to  heaven,  and  the  brilliancy  of  the  firmament  was  eclipsed 
by  that  of  the  raging  fire. 


526  LOUISA  KntKBniJDE. 

Mr.  Cornelius  0' Byrne,  from  the  entrance  to  the  house, 
where  he  was  yet  lingering,  saw  around  in  the  strongly 
reflected  light,  the  eager  and  happy  faces  of  many  hundred 
of  his  countr^Tiien,  who  had  come  to  celebrate  his  own  hap- 
piness and  that  of  people  dear  to  him.  He  felt  inspired 
by  the  occasion,  and  rushing  along  through  the  crowd,  he 
perceived  in  front  of  the  bonfire  a  huge  bowlder  of  gray 
granite,  such  as  dot  frequently  the  surface  of  Manhattan 
Island  ;  and  placing  himself  on  the  top  of  it,  he  became  at 
once  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes,  and  could  himself  distinctly 
discern  the  numerous  groups  of  people  by  whom  he  was 
surrounded.  The  red  light  threw  out  in  bold  relief  the 
dress,  the  features,  the  attitude,  of  old  men  bent  with  age, 
of  women  and  men  in  the  prime  of  life,  of  boys  and  chil- 
dren moving  around  and  heaping  fuel  on  the  fire.  The  first 
tones  of  his  deep  voice  brought  on  universal  silence,  and, 
in  the  stillness  of  the  night  naught  was  heard,  save  the 
crackling  of  the  brushwood — a  prey  to  the  flames — and  the 
rushing  of  the  air  lifting  up  the  blaze  high  in  the  atmo- 
sphere. 

"  Friends,"  he  exclaimed,  "  I  thank  you  in  my  name  and 
in  the  name  of  all  those  whom  you  have  wished  to  honor. 
In  coming  you  have  been  influenced,  perhaps  unconsciously, 
by  noble  and  profound  motives  ;  and  your  presence  alone, 
in  the  actual  circumstances,  is  creditable  to  you.  It  is  vir- 
tue itself,  in  the  person  of  a  venerable  lady,  that  you  have 
come  to  acknowledge  and  admire  ;  and  as  to  the  others,  it 
is  the  happiness  of  several  of  your  countrymen  that  you 
wanted  to  share  in.  All  honor  to  you  for  such  sentiments 
as  these ;  they  are  worthy  of  your  race,  and  shall  bring 
down  on  you  the  blessing  of  God. 

"  But  the  first  thing  I  wish  you  to  reflect  upon,  on  this 
glorious  night,  is  the  thankfulness  you  ought  to  experience 
for  the  great  nation  that  has  offered  you  an  asylum.  It  is 
owing  to  most  liberal  laws  and  fairness  of  disposition  on  the 
part  of  the  great  mass  of  citizens  that  you  are  allowed  to 
enjoy  the  priceless  boons  which  are  now  your  lot.  In  no 
part  of  your  own  beloved  country  could  you  find  the  ad- 


ALL  IS  WELL  THAT  ENDS  WELL.  527 

vantages  that  surround  you  here,  and,  after  God,  you  ought 
to  thank  for  it  those  who  have  established  on  this  conti- 
nent the  reign  of  peace,  based  on  the  possession  of  equal 
rights.  See  how,  if  you  have  still  some  enemies  to  contend 
with  and  some  dark  schemes  to  defeat,  it  is,  after  all,  easy 
for  you  to  overcome  these  few  obstacles,  sure  to  be  helped 
and  applauded  by  the  great  majority  in  the  vindication  of 
what  is  dear  to  you. 

''Let  me  tell  you,  further,  my  friends,  w^hat  is  the  best 
way  to  show  your  gratitude  and  your  true  appreciation 
of  what  has  been  done  for  you.  It  is  to  practice  all  the 
virtues  w^hich  are  the  support  of  the  State,  and  to  set  by 
your  lives  an  example  to  all,  so  as  to  prevent,  if  possible, 
corruption  from  gaining  more  ground,  and  public  morality 
from  becoming  a  wTeck.  It  is  undeniable  that  immense 
evils  are  beginning  to  spread,  wdiich,  if  not  checked,  are 
destined  to  change  common  contentment  into  universal 
desolation.  Honor,  law,  virtue,  are  all  trampled  under  foot 
by  men  w^ho  ought,  by  their  position,  to  be  patterns  to 
others  ;  and  the  insane  thirst  for  gold,  obtained  by  the 
foulest  means,  threatens  to  destroy  the  last  principles  of 
the  moral  law.  The  safe  constitution  of  the  Government 
shall  not  stand  long,  as  soon  as  virtue  disappears,  and  the 
time  may  shortly  come  w^hen  true  liberty  may  be  replaced 
by  real  tyranny,  and  almost  unanimity  of  feeling,  such  as 
it  form^erly  w^as,  may  come  to  be  superseded  by  gaunt 
anarchy. 

"All  adopted  citizens,  once  become  freemen  in  this  Re- 
public, ought  to  oppose  themselves  as  a  w^all  of  brass  to 
those  destructive  tendencies,  and  help  to  preserve  the  State 
by  the  preservation  of  virtue  and  of  social  order.  Do  this, 
my  friends,  and  you  wiU  have  shown  yourselves  grateful 
to  your  adopted  country. 

"You  will  not  be  alone  in  this  holy  warfare  on  the  side 
of  justice  and  morality.  See  how  you  meet  friends  where- 
ever  you  show  yourselves  the  defenders  of  virtue.  Directly, 
on  all  sides,  helpers  come  to  you  ;  and  your  national  ene- 
mies find  men  and  women  of  their  ow^n  race  opposed  to 


528  LOUISA  KIREBRIDE. 

tlieir  schemes,  and  stanch  supporters  of  your  rights.  I3 
not  the  private  history  of  each  one  of  you  a  tangible  proof 
of  this  ?  The  whole  of  mine  is  certainly  an  irrefragable 
argument  of  its  truth. 

' '  I  know,  from  your  beaming  eyes  and  the  firmness  of 
your  lips,  that  such  is,  at  this  moment,  your  determination. 
Means  will  shortly  be  furnished  you  to  strengthen  by  com- 
bination your  individual  resolves.  The  most  respectable 
lady,  who,  under  the  inspkation  of  God,  has  become  a  joy- 
ful centre  for  you,  will  soon  make  her  designs  public,  and 
call  you  all  to  a  participation  in  her  benevolence.  When 
the  day  comes — and  it  must  be  shortly — means  will  be  placed 
in  your  hands  by  which  you  must  inevitably  conquer.  I 
must  say  for  my  own  part,  that  I  shall  be  too  happy  to 
help  in  so  great  and  good  a  cause." 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  short  speech,  a  hurra  went  up 
to  heaven  such  as  could  wake  up  all  the  surrounding  in- 
habitants of  other  races ;  and  in  group  after  group  the 
friendly  visitors  left  the  ground  for  their  quiet  homes,  and 
soon  peace  and  quiet  reigned  all  around  and  in  the  ''lonely 
brick  house  "  not  far  from  Eighth  Avenue. 


THE  END. 


